© NoTag Design Group

Now it’s time to take a look at a Korean business bringing about changes in the global economy with some new ideas. 

Today, we introduce you to a company named NoTag that makes Korean designer brands available to the rest of the world. Let’s hear from company CEO Choi Ung(최웅). 

I started my business with a few friends at a school dormitory in 2011 when I studied in London. At the time, many international students wanted to find jobs in the U.K. after graduation, but in many cases the only visa available to them was one that encouraged foreign talent to start businesses in the U.K. Many international students applied for the new visa, simply because they hoped to stay in the country longer. But for me, the whole reason I decided to study in the U.K. was because I hoped to open my own business there. 

While working on a master’s degree in Creative and Media Enterprises at the University of Warwick, Choi obtained the “Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur” visa. International students who set up their own venture firms in the U.K. are eligible to apply for this special visa which allows for permanent U.K. residency.

After a rigorous screening process, Choi became the first South Korean national to get the visa, and his company, NoTag, became the first Korean-owned venture firm approved by the U.K. government under its entrepreneur visa program. Here’s Choi to explain a bit more about the company he founded. 

When a Korean designer makes a product, NoTag aims to show it to buyers in different countries within 24 hours and enable them to receive and resell it within seven days. Under the slogan of “Within 24 hours, within seven days,” the company helps Korean designers export their products overseas. Korean designer brands that work with us do not have to worry about complicated export procedures because we take care of all trading processes such as language translation, payments and shipments. It will take a long time for small design firms to deal with these matters by themselves. But NoTag prepares everything in detail from A to Z so it can introduce Korean products to international buyers simply and easily. 

Choi saw that products available in Korea at affordable prices were two to three times more expensive in the U.K. This was due to a complicated mix of inefficient distribution, middlemen, regional distributors, wholesalers and retailers. When a product passes through so many hands, prices inevitably go up.

Choi considered how he could improve the situation. He established NoTag in 2013 and began to provide a first-of-its-kind cross-border commerce service. The company partnered with Korean designer brands that had previously abandoned selling abroad due to complicated procedures and revived their exports. 

© NoTag Design Group

In a sense, trading procedures are rather simple. Brochures and price lists for buyers and other documents needed for exports have certain standardized forms. We have modularized different export procedures for each country so we can put various Korean suppliers into the different modules, in accordance with their export destinations. Once the basic formulas are set, we simply apply them to local designers. 

Thanks to our quick and simple solution, we can complete all necessary documents and show quality products to foreign buyers within 24 hours. The buyers, for their part, can receive the Korean products within a week if they contact designers through NoTag. Before NoTag, it typically took a few months for overseas traders to make contact with Korean designers and attain their goods. In that case, many designers give up exporting all together, because the popular season for those goods would be over before hitting shelves overseas. Our business resolves this problem. 

“Tag” means the price tag or fixed prices. The name NoTag reflects the company’s wish to create an efficient distribution structure for consumers. When providing its global trading solution, the company does not follow the conventional export process but employs the same method used in domestic trade. 

When a Korean supplier makes a consignment contract with NoTag, for example, the supplier uses Korean currency and delivers its products domestically, just as it provides goods to a local wholesaler. NoTag, then, handles all the export procedures—translating product information, conducting sales promotion overseas, identifying foreign buyers, sending the products abroad, changing the currency and more. This is possible because of NoTag’s fast, inexpensive and efficient shipping system tailored to different countries. 

As NoTag perfected its system, it attracted the attention of more and more domestic brands.

In the first year of business, we worked with just two local designer brands. We introduced the two brands to ten buyers abroad, and the ten foreign resellers asked us to introduce more Korean brands. Our business grew from there. Currently, we export some 300 Korean designer brands to 800 foreign buyers. Every season, we select and recommend products to resellers abroad. 

We have secured a number of large distribution channels in the U.K. in particular, including at Selfridges, Harrods and the Conran Shop, which is a furniture and home furnishing store chain. We’ve recently entered into contracts with large Chinese e-commerce platforms like Alibaba, Jingdong and Kaola as well.

NoTag is a small but strong company that opens up foreign markets to Korean designers of all sizes. Through the company, resellers around the world can quickly import reasonably-priced Korean products featuring innovative ideas and technology. 

NoTag is also helping Korean fashion brands grow and expand. One such label, called “Find Kapoor,” offers high-quality products with sophisticated designs at affordable prices. Through NoTag’s export service, Find Kapoor now enjoys worldwide demand and recognition just two years after it launched. 

As for NoTag, it’s dreams remain ambitious.

NoTag hopes to become a leading distribution channel for Korean fashion items, designs and handicrafts abroad. I hope that awareness of our service, which allows international consumers to browse many trendy and good-quality Korean products, will continue to grow. Many countries have their own representative distribution channels. In the U.K., a department store named “Liberty” deals in quality goods characterized by tradition and craftsmanship. 

Japan’s “Muji” discovers talented local designers and distributes their products around the world. The popular Danish design store brand “Flying Tiger Copenhagen” promotes inexpensive and interesting products in the global market. Korea has no such distinctive distribution channel for designers, as far as I know. I hope my company will be able to play that role. 

NoTag is redefining the concept of commercial trade. Currently, it directly manages 16 channels inside and outside Korea. Through these channels, the company is building an online and offline commerce platform where global consumers can purchase Korean products in just a few days at prices similar to those in Korea. Expectations are high that NoTag will grow into a global commerce solution provider and become a symbol of Korean design.