Website Development
What goes on your first Korean page
Translating the home-country site leaves delivery, exchange and contact empty. Ten slots for a first Korean page, three positions for contact points, and three ways to set the domain.
The first Korean-language page you open should answer how it arrives, how it can be exchanged, and who to talk to before it describes the product. Translating the home-country site leaves those three slots empty. At home the checkout flow and the support desk already answer them, so the site never had to carry them. Start by filling the ten slots below.
Which slots go on the page?
Ten slots, top to bottom. The order follows what a reader wants to know while scrolling. Two or three lines per slot is enough — filled and short beats long and vague.
| Slot | What it holds | The question that comes back if it is empty |
|---|---|---|
| Opening line | What the brand sells · which country it comes from | Whose brand is this? |
| Product | Name · volume or size · price · photo | What does it cost in Korea? |
| Where to order | One link to the place an order can be placed | Where do I order? |
| Delivery | Where it ships from · how many days · shipping fee | When does it arrive? |
| Extra charges | Domestic or cross-border shipment · anything payable on receipt | Will I pay more? |
| Exchange and return | Within how many days · in what condition · who pays | Can I swap it if it does not fit? |
| Contact | Channels · time to reply · language handled | Where do I reach you? |
| Seller details | Selling company name · a contact reachable inside Korea · privacy notice | Who is actually selling this? |
| FAQ | Five questions that have actually arrived | — |
| Language switch | One link back to the home-country site | Is there an original site? |
Where does translation alone leave gaps?
Some slots are not finished when the sentences are carried over. Three kinds: values that must be restated, sentences that must be written again, and slots the home-country site never had.
| On the home-country site | What the Korean page does with it |
|---|---|
| Price in the home currency | Restate it in won and note beside it whether shipping is included |
| Size and volume notation | Show the home notation and the one used in Korea side by side |
| Brand name | Fix one Korean spelling and use it in every position |
| Marketing copy | Carry the meaning across, write the sentence again |
| Home-country support notice | Replace it with channels that can be reached from inside Korea |
| (nothing) | Add the seller details and a contact inside Korea |
Literal translation breaks the layout at the buttons and the menu. A Korean character is wider than a Latin one, so the same meaning takes a different width and button labels wrap onto a second line. Rewrite button labels to about six Korean characters. If the product runs on mains power, note that household outlets in Korea take two round pins and say whether an adapter is in the box.
How are delivery, exchange and contact written?
These three are usually checked before the decision to order is made. Buried at the very bottom, they come back as inquiries instead. If a value is not settled yet, writing "being confirmed" still beats an empty slot.
| Item | Value to write | How to write it |
|---|---|---|
| Origin of shipment | Domestic warehouse, or direct from the home country | If both are used, mark it per product |
| Days taken | Business days and calendar days, both | 5 business days (1 calendar week) |
| Shipping fee | Amount · the threshold where it drops away | Written in won |
| Return address | Inside Korea or abroad | If abroad, say so on the spot |
| Reply time | Within hours, or within days | Stated in Korean time |
A return address abroad makes an exchange take longer. Put that fact near the top of the page — learned after the order, one inquiry turns into several rounds.
Where do the contact points sit on the page?
In three positions, with the same wording — near the top, at the end of the product description, and at the very bottom. The point at which a reader decides differs from person to person. Two channels are enough: one that takes a message and lets them leave (a form), one that goes back and forth immediately (a messenger).
An email address on its own often reads as an answer that takes days. Opening one desk on a messenger widely used in Korea moves the short questions there and leaves only the long ones in the form. If a phone number is listed, give one that can be dialled inside Korea as it stands rather than an international number.
Keep the form to 5 fields or fewer — name, contact, product, message, consent. Every added field loses more people midway. After sending, show one line: received, and an answer within this many working days. Without that line the same person sends again.
How are the domain and the addresses set?
Even when starting with one page, set the address with what comes later in view. Once it is printed on ads, cards and boxes it is hard to undo.
| Approach | Choose it when | Decide alongside |
|---|---|---|
| A folder under the home domain | Starting with one page, run together with the home site | Put the language marker at the top of the screen |
| A sub-address of the home domain | Korean screens will grow to several pages | Build it so the menu can diverge from the home site |
| A separate Korean domain | A selling entity stands in Korea and an own store opens | Leave one route in from the home domain |
Keep path names short and in lowercase Latin letters. An address containing Korean characters turns into a long string when copied and gets cut off in a messenger. Keep the language split visible in the address — if the language only switches inside the screen, a shared link opens in the wrong language for whoever receives it. Country domains sometimes carry eligibility conditions, so check the registry's guidance for those conditions first.
What is checked before it opens?
Three things are stated on the page: the name of the selling company, a contact reachable inside Korea, and how personal data is handled. Which items apply, and how far, depends on whether you sell directly, a Korean entity sells, or distribution is handed over. Check with the responsible authority which case your sales arrangement falls under, then state it as it is.
Depending on the product, there are markings or filings to obtain before selling in Korea. What is required is split by product type, so check it before writing the screen copy.
What to do today
On one sheet of paper, list the ten slots from the first table down the page and tick only the ones that can be carried over from the home-country site as they are. The unticked slots are this project's build list. Usually four remain — delivery, extra charges, exchange, seller details — and writing one line of answer for each also shows who inside Korea will take that work on.
