[DigitalToday reporter Daegeon Seok (석대건)] The biggest barrier to starting an online business appears to be the process of carrying out tasks alone, rather than a lack of information. Cafe24 on June 8 released results from an analysis of 551 consultations held over about five months since January at its offline consultation space, the "PRO Community Center".

After categorising consultation types, 401 cases most commonly expressed a sense of being at a loss about the overall process before starting an online business, including comments such as "It is hard to do alone" and "I don't know what I should do." This was followed by 113 cases on signing up for and verifying electronic payments, 75 on account and system settings, 64 on AI-assisted production and 52 on business certification and corporate documents. Visitors repeatedly left questions such as, "What should I start with first?" and "Is there a guide I can follow step by step?"

By visitor type, prospective founders with no experience running a shopping mall accounted for 57%, the largest share. Open-market sellers made up 25%, operators of their own online stores 16% and offline business owners 2%. Visits by open-market sellers reviewing plans to build their own online stores and expand their brands were also notable. By question type during consultations, there were 80 cases on product registration, 72 on business certification and signing up for electronic payments, and 57 on commissions and costs.

A high share of consultations also led to actual progress in starting a business. Based on all consultation participants, the share that completed building a shopping mall or made partial progress was 90%. In a post-consultation survey asking about perceptions of "Cafe24 PRO", 96.3% of respondents answered positive or higher. Junsu Kim (김준수), CEO of Mamdre, a middle-aged women's clothing shopping mall, said, "I came in person, listened to step-by-step explanations and practised right away, and that gave me confidence that I could do it on my own even after I got home." The centre operates in Dongdaemun, Seoul, and provides hands-on training and consulting from initial settings such as membership sign-up and verification and electronic payment applications to product registration and promotion operations.

Cafe24 CEO Jaeseok Lee (이재석) said, "There is a lot of information about online business, but in the actual start-up process there is still strong demand for support that allows people to review and execute together with experts." He added, "The Cafe24 PRO Community Center plays a role in solving on site, together, the stages where founders most often get stuck, from building a shopping mall to preparing to operate it."