| Cafe24 made significant inroads into the global market in 2021. It even launched the “Cafe24 Global Service” that allows users from all over the world to access its services and is maintaining active ties with a large number of global businesses. Israel in particular has become home to many firms that have built a close relationship with Cafe24. |
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| Israel is a well-established state, but what’s not as widely known is the fact that it’s an IT powerhouse and a global e-commerce giant. |
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| We now talk to a representative of MINDAD, an Israeli partner firm of Cafe24, to learn more about the untapped potential of the Israeli market and other topics that may be of interest to our listeners. |
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| Hello, it’s nice to meet you. Could you start off with a brief introduction of yourself and your firm MINDAD? |
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| Gillit : Hi, I’d like to start things off with an overview of MINDAD. We are an affiliate of weEndeavor and our firm invests in and cooperates with global media and digital marketing companies. |
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| We first started our venture as a part of weEndeavor in 1999 and entered the digital marketing industry. It led to the birth of six separate affiliates and MINDAD was one of them. MINDAD operates branches in Israel, the United States, Canada, the UK, and the APEC region. We are a digital marketer that helps startups, small businesses, e-commerce operators and brands to generate more traffic and achieve sustainable growth. Now, we’d like to introduce our team. |
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| Nir : I am Nir Maliar and I’m the CEO of MINDAD. I’ve been a part of this company for around 10 years, and I became its CEO 2 years ago. Our job is to map out digital marketing strategies and execute them. I believe it’s important for our company to quickly try out new technologies and recommend them to our clients when we determine that they’re useful. |
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| Gillit : Hello, my name is Gillit Segeve and I’ve been with MINDAD for around 6 years, overseeing our international business and sales operations. I’ve been working in the marketing industry for around 10 years, and my focus is on crafting international business strategies and maintaining a good relationship with our partner firms. Digital marketing is a sector that is growing and evolving very quickly, and this is something that is of great personal interest to me. I believe the greatest advantage of digital marketing is its ability to connect businesses, cultures and people so that it allows them to achieve great things. |
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| Thank you for that introduction. How did you first discover Cafe24 and what projects are you currently working on together? |
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| Gillit : We first started doing business in Korea around a year-and-a-half ago, so in the early days of the pandemic. Many of our clients were Cafe24 users and that’s how we found out about the company. We reached out to them via LinkedIn to discuss business opportunities, and now we’re holding regular meetings with Cafe24. When it comes to the scope of our partnership, we’re helping global firms enter the Korean market and vice versa while also promoting Israeli IT companies in a variety of sectors. Israel is home to many IT startups and tech firms, and I believe this could serve to benefit both sides. |
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| Are there many online stores in Israel and how well are Korean products known there? |
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| Nir/ Gillit : Israel’s e-commerce market is growing very rapidly. When looking at data, it is the fastest growing among all OECD member states and particularly strong in the fashion and beauty categories. Online sales rose 20% in 2018 alone, and the e-commerce industry as a whole was worth around 5.5 billion euros in 2020. Most of the goods sold were bought from foreign platforms, and despite having a population of less than 10 million people, Israeli are the world’s third-largest online spenders on a per capita basis. So, Israel buys a lot of goods from abroad, and around 80% of their overseas purchases were conducted online. I think it is a promising market for global brands and Israelis aren’t afraid to open up their wallets when it comes to maintaining good fashion and keeping up with the latest trends. Overall, they spend roughly 10% more than the average consumer in Europe, and this has been driven mostly by Millennials and Gen Zs as it is the case in many other countries. You can say their spending habits are roughly on par with the U.S. and compared to Europe, they spend anywhere between 35 to 46% more on e-commerce transactions. Many foreign brands have entered the Israeli market recently, and there’s a growing level of interest in Korean products as well. |
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| Have you always been interested in the Korean market? What is your assessment of the Korean market? |
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| Nir/ Gillit : We can tell you that our interest in Korea has grown significantly on a fundamental level. We actually didn’t know much about the Korean market, so we were hesitant to go there at first. So in 2019, before we started doing business in the country, we carried out some detailed and thorough market research to gauge the potential of Korea’s digital marketing and e-commerce industries. We got some good results from our feasibility study on MINDAD’s potential to grow in Korea and where its customers are positioned in the market, and that’s why we decided to business there. We realized there were even more opportunities and growth potential than we thought after entering the Korean market. Market analysis shows that Korea’s e-commerce market is continuing to grow and we’re looking to maximize our business opportunities there by tapping into its potential that has yet to be realized. |
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| Do you have any final words to share? |
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| Gillit : I want to thank Cafe24 for opening up a new business opportunity for us and I also want to thank you for this interview. Every country has its own unique corporate culture and business practices, but I believe that the way Koreans conduct business is most similar to how we do it. We want to continue engaging in more cooperation with Cafe24 in other areas, in hopes of forging a stronger and more mutually-beneficial partnership. |
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