G-market officials pose at Mount Surak after holding a ceremony to start the forestation program. (G-market)

Global Volunteer Team ranks most sought-after program, shoppers donate over 1.51 billion won


G-market, one of South Korea’s biggest online shopping malls, is also leading the electronic commerce market in terms of social contribution.

EBay Korea, which acquired G-market in 2009, said that the online shopping mall spent 2.7 billion won ($2.4 million) in social contributions last year, which took up about 4.1 percent of the year’s operating profit and 0.6 percent of sales.

The proportion is about 2.5 times bigger than the average ratio of social contribution spending in total sales, 0.24 percent, as researched by the Federation of Korean Industries in 2010.

G-market has been conducting various volunteer and charity activities in and out of Korea. The G-market Global Volunteer Team, initiated in 2006, is especially notable for its popularity among young people.

Twice a year G-market recruits new members for the team and so far over 1,100 have participated. The team has flown to countries in need in Africa and South America, and set up education programs, introduced new cultures and helped out with people’s everyday lives in many ways.

Over 7,000 applied to join the team for the last recruiting cycle in May. The final group of 200 was selected, went through training and were dispatched to nine countries including the Philippines, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India and Thailand earlier this month. The average volunteer period varies depending on the country, but on average is about two weeks.

Anyone aged between 20 to 30, who are able to travel overseas, can apply to be a part of the team. The final members are selected after a screening process that includes interviews and camp training. G-market covers all the expenses of the volunteer trip.

University students most wanted to join G-market’s volunteer team over other social contribution programs according to a survey conducted by online job search portal Job Korea last year.

“G-market’s Global Volunteer Team is very popular among those in their 20s and 30s as they can learn about other cultures and grow courage and spirit for adventure as well as do volunteer work in other countries by being a part of the team. It has become one of the representative volunteer programs in the country,” said Kim So-jeong, an official at G-market’s marketing division. 

“Supportive Shopping” is another representative social-contribution system by G-market. When a buyer purchases certain products that have been registered as a “supportive product” by the seller, a certain percentage of the price is donated to organizations such as UNICEF, Good Neighbors or Child Fund Korea.

G-market offers benefits to sellers who register supportive products in ways such as showing the product first in line. With 7,000 sellers participating in the system which began in 2005, the number is steadily increasing. More than 5.8 million products were registered as supportive products and a total of 15.1 billion won has been donated through the system so far.

For those who did not end up purchasing any items, G-market still offers a chance to help out the less fortunate through an icon titled “The Miracle of 100 won.”

By clicking on the icon, shopping mall users can donate 100 won to use toward various deeds such as scholarships for children in low-income families. 

Offline, G-market actively supports environment-saving campaigns. It conducted forestation programs on Mount Gwanak in southern Seoul in 2008 and on Mount Surak north of Seoul last month, where employees planted trees and installed trail markers.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldcorp.com)