Korea market localization checklist for brands
Selling in Korea takes more than translating your English site. Korean shoppers compare products carefully, read detail pages to the bottom, and notice quickly when copy was written for another market. This checklist is the order I'd work in for a brand preparing its first Korean launch, whether that's a marketplace listing, a Korean landing page or a full site.
It's general guidance, not legal advice. Anything regulatory below should be confirmed with the official sources linked, or with a qualified local partner.
Stage 1: Decide before you translate
☐ Pick your channel first. The format of your Korean content depends on where it will live. A marketplace detail page, a brand store, a retailer's listing and your own website each have different layouts, length limits and image rules. Write for the channel, not for a generic "Korean version." (For a comparison of the main options, see Olive Young vs Coupang vs Naver.)
☐ Decide your brand name in Korean. Options:
- keep the English name only;
- use a Hangul transliteration (how it sounds, written in Korean letters);
- use both, usually Hangul with the English beside it.
Check how Korean shoppers would type the name into a search bar. If people search in Hangul and your listing only has the English name, you may be harder to find. Settle on one spelling and use it everywhere.
☐ Build a glossary. List product names, ingredient or material names, feature names and category terms, with the approved Korean for each. 30–100 entries is typical for a small catalog. This one document prevents most consistency problems later.
☐ Choose a voice and speech level. Korean has several levels of formality. Most consumer brands use the polite 해요 style for marketing copy and customer replies. Some use a more formal 합니다 style for trust-heavy categories. Decide, write it down with two or three example sentences, and share it with everyone who writes Korean for you.
Stage 2: Product content
☐ Rewrite benefits, don't translate them. English copy often leads with mood ("clean, calm, effortless"). Korean detail pages usually do better with concrete information: what it does, how to use it, who it suits, size and volume, and how it compares. Keep your brand personality, but make sure the facts are easy to find.
☐ Plan a long detail page. Korean marketplace detail pages are often long, image-based layouts that walk through the product section by section. If you only have a few English bullet points, budget time to produce:
- a key benefit summary;
- ingredients or specs;
- how-to-use steps;
- size or variant guide;
- FAQ;
- shipping and returns information.
☐ Localize units and formats.
- Metric units (ml, g, cm)
- Prices in KRW (₩), written without decimals
- Dates as YYYY.MM.DD or YYYY년 M월 D일
- Korean clothing and shoe size conventions, if relevant
- Times in KST (UTC+9)
☐ Replace market-specific references. US holidays, sports references, "free shipping over $50" and US-only payment methods all need Korean equivalents, or need to go.
☐ Check images for baked-in English. Infographics, before/after visuals and banners with English text need Korean versions. Make sure the font you use includes Hangul glyphs. Missing glyphs show up as empty boxes.
Stage 3: Regulatory and claims review
This is where literal translation is riskiest, because a claim that's acceptable in your home market may need approval or different wording in Korea.
☐ Cosmetics: check labeling and claims. Korea's Cosmetics Act (English translation on the national law portal) covers what cosmetics labels must show and what may be claimed. Certain claims, such as whitening/brightening, wrinkle improvement and sunscreen, fall under "functional cosmetics." These are handled through the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). The MFDS page on functional cosmetics is the place to start. Don't translate an SPF or anti-aging claim into Korean until you know how your product is classified.
☐ Food, supplements, electronics, kids' products: check category rules. These categories have their own import, labeling and certification rules in Korea. Electrical products, for example, are commonly subject to KC safety certification. Find the rule for your category before you write claims, not after.
☐ Avoid unsupported superlatives. "No. 1," "best," "clinically proven" and "100% safe" need evidence wherever you sell. In Korea, as elsewhere, platforms and regulators can ask for it. If you can't document it, rewrite it.
☐ Keep a claims log. For each claim in your Korean copy, note the source: a test report, a certificate or the label. It makes marketplace reviews and later edits much faster.
Stage 4: Search and discovery
☐ Do Korean keyword research separately. Korean shoppers don't necessarily search with a direct translation of your English keywords. They may use a loanword, a Korean term or a mix. Check what terms Korean competitors use in their titles, and what the search bar suggests on the platform you're selling on.
☐ Write titles for the platform. Marketplace product titles often follow a pattern: brand, product name, key attribute, size or quantity. Study the top listings in your category and follow their structure, without copying their wording.
☐ Localize metadata. Page titles, meta descriptions, image alt text and URL slugs on your own site should all have Korean versions, not just the visible body text.
Stage 5: Customer experience
☐ Translate the whole journey, not just the product page. That includes checkout labels, order confirmation emails, shipping notices, return instructions and error messages. A Korean product page that leads to an English-only checkout loses trust at the worst moment.
☐ Prepare Korean support templates. Write 10–20 template replies for common questions: shipping time, returns, ingredients, sizing, damaged items. Korean shoppers often ask before buying, so pre-sale replies matter as much as post-sale ones.
☐ Plan for reviews. Korean shoppers write and read reviews heavily. Decide who will read Korean reviews, how fast you'll reply, and in what tone. Never post or buy fake reviews. Platforms police this, and it isn't worth the risk.
☐ Check messaging channels. Many Korean brands offer customer chat through KakaoTalk or platform chat. If you can't staff live chat, say clearly how and when you respond.
Stage 6: Quality check before launch
☐ Native review in context. Have a native Korean speaker review the content where it will appear: on the actual listing preview, on mobile, with the images in place. Reading a spreadsheet of strings is not enough.
☐ Separate translation from review. The person who checks should not be the person who translated.
☐ Test on mobile. Korean e-commerce is heavily mobile. Check line breaks, image text size and button labels on a phone screen.
☐ Proof the numbers. Prices, volumes, dates, phone numbers and discount percentages are where small errors cause the biggest problems.
Stage 7: After launch
☐ Keep the glossary alive. Add new terms as products and campaigns are added.
☐ Localize updates on the same day. New product launches, price changes and announcements should go out in Korean at the same time as English, or Korean shoppers will notice the gap.
☐ Review what customers say. Questions that keep coming up in Korean reviews and inquiries usually point to something the detail page didn't explain. Fix the page.
The short version
If you only do five things:
- Choose the channel, then write for its format.
- Fix your Korean brand name and glossary before anyone translates.
- Rewrite benefits as concrete Korean copy instead of translating mood words.
- Check every claim against Korean rules for your category.
- Have a native speaker review it in context, on mobile, before launch.
Localization done this way takes longer than a quick translation, but it's the difference between a Korean page that looks like an afterthought and one that looks like you meant to be there.
Need this done for your product? Send a short written brief (site link, what you need, deadline) to yjs121256@gmail.com. You'll get a fixed quote in writing, usually within one Korean business day.
한국어로 문의하셔도 됩니다.