A vehicle is parked near a Coupang logistics center in downtown Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean small and mid-sized businesses (SMEs) selling on Coupang face higher costs than on other major e-commerce platforms, according to a new industry survey released Tuesday.
The Korea Federation of SMEs (KBIZ) said companies that rely on Coupang as their primary online marketplace reported paying fees equal to 20.6 percent of their Coupang-generated sales, higher than the average 18.8 percent paid by SMEs across all platforms surveyed. Only Musinsa, at 23.2 percent, ranked higher.
The survey, which covered 690 SMEs and included responses from 162 firms primarily using Coupang, found that the largest financial burdens were sales commissions (50 percent), logistics costs (29 percent) and advertising expenses (19.8 percent).
Coupang was also cited for longer settlement periods, with 34 percent of respondents saying it took more than 51 days to receive payment after a sale was confirmed — a timeline that only single-digit shares of sellers reported on competing platforms.
The company’s average intermediary sales commission rate stood at 14.21 percent, above the industrywide average of 13.82 percent.
Despite the higher costs, SMEs did not report meaningful sales growth on Coupang. Asked to compare their sales to last year using a five-point scale, sellers gave the platform a score of 3.64, placing it fourth among the six major marketplaces included in the survey.
“SMEs trading on Coupang are bearing a higher cost burden than those on other platforms,” a KBIZ official said. “While most marketplaces account for 10 to 20 percent of sellers’ revenue in fees, Coupang frequently reaches into the 20 to 30 percent range.”
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
