Reduction of Losses

The headquarters building of WeMakePrice that saw its losses reduce in the fiscal year of 2016 by more than half.
The headquarters building of WeMakePrice that saw its losses reduce in the fiscal year of 2016 by more than half.

 

South Korea’s three online retailers - Coupang, Ticket Monster and WeMakePrice – have started announcing the last year’s performance one by one. WeMakePrice, which made the first announcement, saw its losses reduce by more than half, showing an improved profits.

WeMakePrice announced on April 6 that it posted 369.1 billion won (US$326.35 million) in sales last year, up 70.5 percent from a year earlier. The company reduced its operating losses by 55.3 percent to 63.6 billion won (US$56.23 million), while it recorded net losses of 83 billion won (US$73.39 million).

The company’s sales rise was driven by its fresh food service “Shin Sun Saeng (fresh and alive),” which was the first to sell fresh food online among social commerce platforms last year, and shoes select service “Shoes Coach.” The services, which are directly purchased and sold by WeMakePrice, accounted for 55.4 percent of the total revenue.

An official from the industry said, “WeMakePrice has been able to get out of “Death Valley” of deficits as the company strengthened its direct purchase business in order to become more than just a social commerce platform along with Coupang and Ticket Monster.”

WeMakePrice shows a distinct growth in transactions and profits this year. This is largely due to special events on certain days and lowest prices that have led to the increase in the repurchase rate of existing customers and the number of new buyers.

WeMakePrice Park Eun-sang said, “We will not only improve profitability through a selective focus but also accelerate the expansion for growth this year.”

Meanwhile, attention is now focused on Coupang and Ticket Monster which will announce the annual performance next week. Coupang and Ticket Monster posted 547 billion won (US$484.07 million) and 141.9 billion won (US$125.58 million) in losses, respectively, in 2015.

 

 

 

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