Skyrocketing Sales Growth
Coupang (President Kim Bum-suk) has announced that it surpassed a monthly turnover of 200 billion won just 4 years since it started its services in Aug. 2010, recording 205.6 billion won (US$186.3 million) in November.
The company has achieved this growth at a surprising rate. Its monthly turnover exceeded 100 billion won (US$90.7 million) in June last year, and the figure has doubled in just a year and 5 months.
Coupang provides fast delivery services on infant and children goods, household goods, pet goods, and food. In particular, sales of these products increased more than 10 times compared to the same period last year, a steep rise.
Also, the turnover of fashion and beauty products increased about 45 percent compared with last year. Coupang currently sells an additional 80 clothing brands including Bean Pole Outdoor, NEPA and Moose Knuckles, which are top clothing brands.
Coupang increased the variety of merchandise it offers to give its customers more choice. The company is also receiving a positive consumer response by providing the “Rocket delivery” and “Coupang men” services, which allow consumers to get their products quickly and safely.
As the company’s performance indicators show upward trends, and stories that the merchants in its marketplace see sales growth after they feature their products on Coupang, go viral, the number of inquiries about being a merchant have increased by 150 percent. Indeed, the number of new merchants in November grew by more than 70 percent compared to the previous month.
Meanwhile, Coupang now offers various special events for the holidays to satisfy consumers by providing up to an 80 percent discount on clothing products, a discount coupon on fashion, accessories and beauty products, and a “golden deal” which gives additional discounts on discounted items.
Kim Soo-hyun, director of the Curation Division, said, “Based on the clear growth in performance of the company, more and more merchants are becoming interested in Coupang as a major distribution channel. We are selecting and offering only high quality products to consumers.”
Coupang had previously raised US$300 million in an investment led by BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset management company, on Dec. 11. The figure is the largest investment in the history of Korea’s unlisted IT and e-commerce industries.