Korean for Online Selling: Vocabulary, Politeness Levels, and Live Commerce

You just listed a linen shirt on your shop when a notification chimes: a new message in the customer chat. 「방금 주문했는데 배송지를 바꿀 수 있나요?」 A simple question, but you freeze on something smaller: reply with 합니다 or 해요, what to call the customer, and whether 「바꿔 드릴게요」 is right or it has to be 「바꿔 줄게요」.

Korean ties speaker to listener through sentence endings, so every sales message forces you to pick a politeness level before you pick words. Textbooks usually teach that level through friend or coworker dialogue, and rarely teach it for a seller messaging a 고객님 waiting on an order. This article’s grammar section targets exactly that gap.

The article is for Vietnamese sellers selling to Korean customers, whether you live in Korea and sell on domestic platforms or sell from Vietnam. You get a word table from product page to chat box, five grammar patterns, three dialogues, and how to practice while you sell and learn.

• Where seller Korean shows up
• Vocabulary, from product page to chat box
• Five grammar patterns for messages and live
• Three dialogues from chat to live room
• How to practice while selling and learning
• What sellers often ask
• First step

Where seller Korean shows up

Sellers use Korean in three contexts; each context has a familiar politeness level. The table below shows common patterns so you recognize them when reading and copy them when writing.

Customers call you 판매자님 or 사장님; you call them 고객님. Avoid 당신 and 너 because both sound too distant or too familiar, and in Korean you often drop the subject instead of using a pronoun. Vietnamese speakers are used to picking one address term like anh, chị, or bạn, so they often want one Korean equivalent, while Korean often drops pronouns and lets the sentence ending handle politeness.

When switching between levels, the rule of thumb is: write notices and the first line in 합쇼체, move into back-and-forth with 해요체 for a natural feel, and never use 반말 with customers. Endings like 네요 or 죠 belong to 해요체, so they will not appear in formal page notices.

Vocabulary, from product page to chat box

The tables follow a small shop’s workflow: list products, set prices, take orders and ship, handle returns, then livestream. The 40 words in the game fit in five tables, plus some very Korean terms like 무통장입금, 도서산간, and 후기.

Before listing a product

등록하다 is the natural verb for listing a product; 올리다 means “put up” and sounds more casual. On platforms you will see the button 상품등록, so remember both forms.

Price, stock, and payment

벌 is the counter for clothing, as in 두 벌, 세 벌; other products usually use 개. Wrong counters rarely confuse customers, but the right counter makes you sound much more fluent. 무통장입금 is payment by transfer to an account then manual confirmation by the seller, so the phrase 입금 확인 shows up in chat with customers who choose that method.

Customers, orders, and shipping

택배 and 배송 are often confused. 택배 is the service and also the parcel sent through that service; 배송 is delivery in general. When a customer says 「택배가 안 왔어요」, the parcel has not reached them; when you say 「배송 중입니다」, it is on the way. For remote-area surcharges or actual fees, each carrier sets its own rules, so read their current rate table.

Returns, warranty, and reviews

불만 is a general complaint and sounds lighter than a formal grievance. In the shop you will also hear 클레임 from coworkers or partners, borrowed from English, usually when talking about handling hard cases. 리뷰 and 후기 both mean review, but 후기 is usually a longer write-up about a real experience.

Live commerce

Five grammar patterns for messages and live

1. 합쇼체 and 해요체: pick politeness for each message

The most formal level sellers use is -ㅂ니다 or -습니다, called 합쇼체. It fits notices, opening greetings, and apologies. In back-and-forth talk, especially in chat, 해요체 with -아요 or -어요 sounds more natural and stays polite.

• 문의해 주셔서 감사합니다.
• 네, 확인해 볼게요.
• 고객님, 안녕하세요.

A common mistake for Vietnamese speakers is trying to translate “you” as 당신 or 너, and sometimes replying curtly in 반말 like 「응」 when they want brevity. The safe approach is drop the pronoun, say 고객님, and use 네 to agree. Also do not use 합쇼체 straight through every line in fast chat; it sounds like reading a press release.

2. -아/어 주시겠어요? and -아/어 주세요: ask the customer to do something

When you ask the customer to send a photo or order number, use the verb plus -아/어 주세요. Softer is -아/어 주시겠어요?, a polite question with honorific -시-. Add 부탁드립니다 at the end of a message for a formal request.

• 주문 번호를 알려 주시겠어요?
• 사진을 보내 주세요.
• 확인 부탁드립니다.

A common mistake is forgetting -아/어 and writing 「사진을 보내세요」, which sounds like an order. Some use 줘요 instead of 주세요, which is too casual. The pair to remember is 보내 주세요 for a normal request and 보내 주시겠어요 for a softer one.

3. -아/어 드리겠습니다 and -아/어 드릴게요: promise to do something for the customer

When you do something for the customer, the verb 주다 becomes 드리다. Add -겠- or -(으)ㄹ게요 to say you will do it soon. 드리겠습니다 fits written text; 드릴게요 fits chat.

• 바로 교환해 드리겠습니다.
• 새 상품으로 다시 보내 드릴게요.
• 송장번호는 따로 알려 드릴게요.

A common mistake is using 줄게요 or 주겠습니다, which sounds like you are doing a favor for a peer. For the customer’s action, do not use 드리다; use -(으)시-, as in 확인해 주세요. 드리다 is only for what you do for the customer.

4. -(으)ㄴ 경우 and 가능합니다, 어렵습니다: state terms

Return policy is written with the pattern -(으)ㄴ 경우, meaning “in the case of”, followed by 가능합니다 (possible) or 어렵습니다 (difficult, meaning usually not allowed). When refusing, 어렵습니다 is softer than 안 됩니다.

• 상품에 하자가 있는 경우 반품이 가능합니다.
• 착용하신 상품은 교환이 어렵습니다.
• 포장을 뜯은 경우에는 환불이 어려울 수 있습니다.

Learners often translate “cannot” as 못 합니다 or 안 돼요, which sounds blunt. A refusal should include 죄송하지만 or 어렵습니다, then what you can offer instead. The three sentences above are sample shop terms; each store has its own policy.

5. -죠, -네요, -(으)세요: livestream voice

In the live room you speak friendly 해요체. -죠 asks viewers to agree; -네요 shows you just noticed something; -(으)세요 is a gentle invite or reminder.

• 이 셔츠, 정말 가볍죠?
• 색이 정말 예쁘네요.
• 채팅으로 질문하세요.

A common mistake is keeping 합쇼체 the whole show so you sound slow and cold, or slipping into 반말 like 「이거 예뻐」 with strangers watching. Stay in 해요체, save 합쇼체 for reading official policy, and call viewers 여러분 or 시청자분들, not 너 for individuals.

Three dialogues from chat to live room

Customer wants to change the delivery address

This chat happens right after the customer orders and before shipment. Note how the seller opens with thanks, keeps 합쇼체 on the first line, then switches to 해요체.

Actual color differs from the photo

Introducing a shirt on live

How to practice while selling and learning

Open Falling Stars or Pop It and play the online selling word deck until you see Hangul and can say the meaning. Korean has no tones to mix up, so the hard part is endings and word order. Then read the example sentences in the tables aloud with the right intonation, once slow and once fast.

For listening, pick one episode from the Korean podcast, listen sentence by sentence and transcribe. Transcribing helps you spot endings like -죠 and -네요 that beginner ears often skip. Courses give you a path, and the vocabulary test shows where you stand.

One job-close practice: open the product page and Q&A of a few Korean shops selling the same kind of goods as you, copy their answers into a file, and mark which lines are 합쇼체 and which are 해요체. After a week you will see repeating patterns and build your own template set.

Outside WELE: King Sejong Institute has online Korean courses, and Talk To Me In Korean has long lessons on endings and politeness. Auto translation like Papago helps you read customer messages fast, but the politeness level of the translation needs a reread before you send. When you want to check level, TOPIK mock tests on WELE show where you stand.

If you also handle sourcing or content, see Korean for sourcing and Korean for content work. All job-track articles are at Korean by profession and online selling.

What sellers often ask

What TOPIK level do you need to sell to Korean customers?

There is no universal level; it depends whether you answer customers yourself or have help. More useful than a number is reading customer questions and having about twenty answer templates checked by a native speaker.

Should you use 합쇼체 or 해요체 with customers?

Use both in the right places. 합쇼체 for notices, opening greetings, and apologies; 해요체 for back-and-forth. Do not use 반말 with customers even if they are younger than you.

What should you call customers?

The common form is 고객님, after a name or alone in a greeting. Once you know the name you can use name plus 님. Avoid 당신 and 너.

Can you use Papago or AI to reply to customers?

Fine for understanding messages and drafting. Before sending, reread the endings, because translation often skews politeness, and have a native speaker check templates you will reuse long term.

What are marketplace and shipping fees in Korea?

This article does not give numbers because they change by platform, carrier, and product type. Read the current fee table before telling customers.

First step

Watch one Korean livestream from a shop in your category, note the five lines the host repeats most, then play Falling Stars to load vocabulary for those lines.