Coupang was found to have received more than 2.3 trillion won in sales promotion fees and sales incentives from suppliers last year.
According to the "survey results on commission rates for large retailers" that the Fair Trade Commission released on the 25th, Coupang collected 2.3424 trillion won last year solely in sales promotion fees and sales incentives from suppliers.
Sales promotion fees are advertising and publicity fees that distributors such as Coupang receive, for example, for placing contracted suppliers' products at the top of the application (app) screen. Sales incentives are money that distributors receive from suppliers in proportion to increases in sales performance.
Specifically, Coupang earned 1.4212 trillion won in sales promotion fees. Coupang operates under a "direct purchase" format, buying goods from suppliers and selling them at its own risk, and the size of these sales promotion fees equals 5.76% of the direct purchase transaction amount (24.6953 trillion won).
It is also estimated that Coupang collected more than 900 billion won in sales incentives. Coupang received sales incentives equal to 3.73% of the direct purchase transaction amount; given that the direct purchase transaction amount is 24.9653 trillion won, Coupang earned 921.1 billion won in sales incentives alone. While various retailers such as department stores, TV home shopping, and big-box supermarkets also received sales incentives, Coupang collected them at the highest rate among them.
With these ancillary revenues from suppliers, Coupang's sales last year totaled 36.1276 trillion won. Regarding this, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said, "In the online mall sector, the sales incentives borne by suppliers are rising steeply, and the burden of sales promotion fees is also very high compared to other companies," adding, "We will closely examine whether distributors in the sector extracted unfair economic gains or shifted expenses."