Better Late than Never

 The merchants in Dongdaemun market are doing sustainable management by selling fashion products at lower prices. Why such a management performance has been consistently achieved is because Dongdaemun market itself has fundamentally a competitive market structure.

Adam Smith, the theoretical godfather of capitalism, said earlier that prices acted as an invisible hand in free competitive markets. Prior to Adam Smith, the 14th Century Syrian academic, Ibn Taymiyyah was among the first to put idea into words.

“If a desire for goods increases while its availability decreases, its price rises. One the other hand, availability of the goods increases and the desire for it decreases, the price comes down.” +

Dongdaemun market is a huge shopping mall with 30,000 small wholesale and retail stores. Above all, it is a strong point of the market that 100,000 designers inside and outside the market are doing more creative work, and it is also advantageous to have 15,000 small sewing factories around the market. In addition, there are many companies with various service infrastructures such as textile and fashion product part markets, logistics, hotels and restaurants, and so on.

In this Dongdaemun Fashion Cluster, all merchants have been doing their business well, taking advantage of a completely free competitive market. In particular, it has become famous as a marketplace where better fashion products are sold to domestic and foreign buyers and retailers at low prices under the invisible hand’s action of the price.

However, due to the so-called price destruction revolution and the growth of large discount stores since the 1990s, the Dongdaemun market began to suffer from weaker market competitiveness. 

In late developing countries, the supply of low-cost fashion products increased with a production system similar to the Dongdaemun market, as well as, the growth of global fast fashion companies such as the SPA brand were also caused to the above market crisis.

Moreover, with the COVID-19 Pandemic, all merchants in Dongdaemun market are in a situation where even their survival is difficult due to the increasingly poor price competitiveness. 

 


-Some of the popular Dongdaemun fashion items we exported last week, seoulclick.com- 


In the aftermath of this and that, the number of stores in Dongdaemun market that are now closed as if all is still. 

Fortunately, many Dongdaemun merchants, such as a Phoenix, are opening their stores in hopes of the future. At this moment, it seems that we need to do this monologue.

“Better late than never.”

In fact, it is not easy for the people of Dongdaemun market to improve their poor price competitiveness. It is also difficult to return to the booming times of the Dongdaemun market, which was crowded with buyers and retailers from all over the world day and night. 

Not all is easy like this, but they have to keep the status quo in the marketplace. Even if it’s late, it is better than giving up. A fashion legend, Ann Demeulemeester said.

“For me, black is not dark, it is poetic. …” ++

Such a sentimental quote is very touching for us. The people of Dongdaemun market are also trying to overcome the difficulties caused by social distancing with a planned online and amorphous commerce system.

Pursuing smart management amid the wave of the 4th industrial revolution that is taking place ahead of other countries, the people of Dongdaemun market will open a new path well with cost-saving production and superior price competitiveness.

After a long winter, spring will come soon.

+ Daniel Smith, Big Ideas, 150 Concepts and Breakthroughs that Transformed History, Michael O’Mara Books Ltd.,2017, 218.

++ The Lives of 50 Fashion Legends, Fashionary International Ltd., 2018.p. 100.

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Bong Sul (Advisor, SeoulClick)

www.seoulclick.com


 Read more: Bong (Bong Sik) Sul, Dongdaemun Style, ebook.kstudy.com, Seoul, 2019.

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