Coupang stopped returning free of charge. What's the reaction of the Korean netizens?

Coupang has withdrawn its free return policy! Now, what is Coupang different from other shopping platforms?

Coupang stopped returning free of charge...Difficulties caused by black consumers.

Coupang has implemented a free return policy within 30 days without the condition of "Return without asking or asking." However, as the number of cases of abuse increased, they officially announced the refund policy with conditions. They raised both hands and feet because of the black consumer.

What has been announced?

According to related industries on the 10th, Coupang has limited its free return policy, which was provided for 30 days after delivery.

Until now, Coupang has returned rocket delivery products free of charge to paid membership Coupang Wow within 30 days. However, Coupang officially announced on its website pop-up screen from the 7th that "only products with no signs of use can be exchanged and returned." In other words, products with damaged packaging or without labels cannot be exchanged or returned.

Willingness to accelerate profitability improvement

As the problem of black consumers became serious, they decided to correct it. 

Coupang posted a pop-up message about the refund policy, which was not done before. The refund policy is actually written in the terms and conditions. The meaning of this pop-up message is that it now expresses its willingness to strictly proceed with free returns according to its original policy. This is the first time Coupang has officially informed consumers by posting a notice.

What kind of damage was there from the black consumer?

Taking advantage of Coupang's unconditional free return service, some malicious black consumers made unfair profits by purchasing products from Coupang and then changing them to defective products purchased elsewhere and receiving refunds. In some cases, bricks or dolls were packaged instead of purchased products and refunded.

This has become a burden on Coupang. In addition to logistics costs due to the need for rocket delivery personnel during the delivery and return process, the disposal of returned products was also a significant loss. 

Will Coupang's profit improvement be effective?

Coupang, which has never recorded a surplus since its foundation, has been steadily striving to improve profitability recently. Coupang also raised the "Wow Membership" fee for new members from $2.5 to $4 last year.

Coupang recorded $18.4637 billion in sales last year, up 54% year-on-year, but its net loss also reached $1.542.59 billion last year, 3.3 times larger than its previous year's net loss of $463.16 billion. This is why Coupang has stepped up efforts to improve profitability.

Shares of Coupang (CPNG), listed on the New York Stock Exchange, have suffered significant losses in recent years. As a result, Vision Fund also sold one-tenth of its shares around September last year. Please refer to my previous article for this.   

Coupang, Korea's leading logistics company, the biggest crisis?

What's the reaction of Korean consumers?

Several consumer reactions to this are translated and uploaded. The reactions are subtle? There are a lot of comments about the national character.

Positive

"In the end, there are a lot of beggars who throw it away or abuse it." That's why Coupang is always in the red.

"This was a piece of cake, but I'm annoyed that the idiots abused it so much. "You can't return things that you used conscientiously or lost the value of the product".

"There are so many kids who abuse Coupang returns." Coupang needs to rip that off and fix it. It's comfortable for consumers, but isn't this a huge loss for companies? Rumor has it that the Coupang distribution warehouse has a huge pile of products returned by consumers."

Negative

"Amazon is still like this. Americans use it and return it a lot. Korea fails."

"I guarantee that the U.S. black consumers are much worse than Korea, but Amazon and Costco are still offering return services at the expense of deficit. What Kim Bum-seok (Chairman of Coupang) says is that he doesn't want to do Coupang return services."