Lotte.com launches China app

South Korea’s Lotte.com has launched a Chinese mobile shopping mall service known as ‘china.lotte.com’ to meet demands of consumers chasing the ‘Korean Wave’.

Growing numbers of Chinese are buying goods online from offshore sources – a practice referred to as ‘Haitao’ locally. And Korean goods – especially in the beauty and fashion categories – are enormously popular among the younger demographic.

China.lotte.com, launched Wednesday (August 19) is’ exclusively focused on customers from Greater China. After global.lotte.com launched in February last year, Lotte spent a whole year preparing for the Chinese version of the site.

More than 10,000 lines have been selected for China.lotte.com and another 5000 local Chinese lines are being added progressively.

Chinese customers can shop using regular payment services including Alipay, UnionPay, Tenpay, PayPal and local Chinese credit cards.

Lotte.com’s global business team manager Hwang Hyun Jung says China.lotte.com considered even minute details to meet the expectations of the rapidly growing Chinese overseas shopping market.

“Through meticulous translations and user tests via Chinese supporters, this service is mainly composed of local-friendly user interface,” she said.

Lotte.com has attracted “hundreds of thousands followers and supporters” via Weibo during the last six months in preparation for the launch.

The company is also promising to work with Korean small businesses to help expose their brands and products to Chinese consumers via the portal.