Korean frozen seafood company utilizes Alibaba.com to sell all over the world

Hello, My name is Donghyun Kim, CEO of E&K CO., Ltd.

Established in 1995, E&K CO., LTD is a producer and exporter of frozen seafood. The main export items are mackerel, yellowtail, horse mackerel, pollock, herring, sardine, and squid.

I was initially skeptical of Alibaba.com as a B2B e-commerce platform. However, we decided that marketing through an online platform was essential and that is why we started Alibaba.com in 2017.

Since 2013 we have been using Alibaba.com to expand our trade markets in East and West Africa and proudly, we are the first Korean company to export frozen seafood to Nigeria. In addition to our expansion in Africa, we are currently exporting to more than 40 countries around the world, mainly in Southeast Asia, Russia, the Middle East, Europe, and the US.

In order to better serve buyers, we possess a certificate of “Product-Specific Approved Exporter,” and FSSC22000 certificate, the latter which is a food-safety inspection certificate.

What was your motivation to sell through Alibaba.com?

Prior to our first sale on Alibaba.com, which was roughly 10 years ago, there were very few options for online marketplaces to sell our products, and the global reach was limited. Our main avenue for procuring new customers and exploring new demand was mostly through buyer introduction, and online search agents.

We started to learn that a large portion of buyers was making transactions using Alibaba.com, and it would be an excellent opportunity for us to increase sales. Now, as a member of Alibaba.com GGS for approximately 9 years, our export market has more than tripled.

Which feature of Alibaba.com do you find is most useful for your business? What results has this feature produced for your business?

I would say the feature I find most useful is the many online B2B exhibitions, such as the March Expo and Super September. These two online exhibitions are very well known to buyers from all over the world. These online exhibitions allow us to meet various buyers from many different countries all at the same time. The number of inquiries we received increased by 80-100% once we began participating in the Super September online exhibition in September 2021.

We are aware that Alibaba.com holds industry-specific online exhibitions, and we have plans to begin actively participating in Food and Beverage specific exhibitions.

Regarding daily operations, I strongly believe the most important thing in e-commerce is to accurately register a variety of high-quality products and to be able to respond quickly to inquiries from buyers. Alibaba.com is accessible not only through a computer but also easily accessed via mobile phone. The Trade Manager app allows you to talk to buyers instantly, and we are able to quickly respond to inquiries from potential buyers to build a trusting relationship. In turn, our ability to obtain new buyers and secure contracts has increased significantly.

What do you feel are the main advantages of Alibaba.com?

Face-to-face meetings such as the Global Fisheries Expo, a popular expo in the past, have become increasingly difficult in recent years. Alibaba.com has afforded us the opportunity to showcase our business to current and potential customers and put their minds at ease that they will consistently receive a quality product.

In the seafood trade, unlike processed products, freshness is very important and varies from seller to seller. When purchasing products from our business, we know you will be satisfied with the result, and we will be able to build trust and long-term cooperation.

With the assistance of Alibaba.com, we aim to become “Your best Seafood partner” for our customers.