This article was published on Feb. 20, 2025, at 5:41 a.m. on the ChosunBiz RM Report site.
There are increasing reports of victims finding that famous overseas nutritional supplements sold on open market platforms like Coupang are fake. The situation is similar on platforms such as 11st and Gmarket. However, concerns have been raised that the user experience (UX) of Coupang's 'Rocket Delivery' and 'Item Winner Policy' are exacerbating consumer confusion.
Rocket Delivery refers to the process by which Coupang directly purchases products and delivers them. The Item Winner Policy exposes the cheapest products among identical items listed on Coupang exclusively as the representative item seller.
◇ “The nutritional supplement I bought was fake.”
According to the distribution industry on the 20th, reports of purchasing fake nutritional supplements from Coupang have been steadily increasing. Recently, a pharmacist uploaded a video on YouTube detailing how to distinguish fake overseas nutritional supplements, bringing various incidents to light. Industry insiders agreed that consumers using open market platforms have virtually no way to avoid sellers who are determined to deceive.
In fact, fraudulent sellers were copying the packaging of specific brands of nutritional supplements to sell. One could only detect minor differences in font size or design by placing a real nutritional supplement container right next to the fake one. The color of the supplement tablets is also made to look similar. Genuine supplements have a deep yellow color, while the fake ones tend to be a pale yellow.
An industry insider noted, “In the past, even the dishonest sellers had a degree of conscience,” adding, “They would send completely empty pills so that buyers could recognize they made a mistake, but now even the pills are made to look similar. Consumers who take these may feel even more uneasy because they cannot determine what’s inside the pills.”
To determine if the purchased nutritional supplement is fake, one has no choice but to verify whether the seller information is accurate on the platform. This is because fake nutritional supplement sellers continue their scams by selling products for a certain period and then deleting their seller page. They withdraw as sellers and re-register under another business name to sell fake supplements again.
◇ User environment (UX) and policies of Coupang exacerbate consumer confusion
The controversy over counterfeit products on open market platforms is indeed a difficult issue to resolve. However, the distribution industry sees that the structure aggravated by Coupang's policies can lead to increased consumer confusion. Rocket Delivery is a case in point. Coupang's Rocket Delivery involves Coupang directly purchasing products and sending them to consumers.
Other platforms like 11st have introduced similar features, but Coupang is the only one that can genuinely engage in direct purchasing sales while bridging domestic and foreign products. This is why consumers seeking to buy nutritional supplements through overseas direct purchase often turn to Coupang’s Rocket Delivery. They want to avoid the controversy of counterfeit products by purchasing through Rocket Delivery. Trusting Coupang for their transactions, they believe they can mitigate the risk of counterfeit products.
The problem is that consumers may confuse purchases from sellers with counterfeit product controversies and Coupang's Rocket Delivery. A consumer's journey on Coupang goes through searching for products → verifying the Rocket Delivery indication → changing options such as quantity, color, and size → and finalizing payment. Confusion arises after confirming the Rocket Delivery indication and selecting the options. This is because based on the options selected, the path diverges into two: Rocket Delivery and seller purchase pages.
Many consumers do not realize that after confirming the aspect of Rocket Delivery, they are then directed to the seller purchase page. This means they realize it only after making the payment that they have engaged in seller proxy purchasing. However, Coupang argues there is no problem with the consumer experience, citing that the delivery date changes and the logo indicating 'Rocket Delivery' disappears from the right side of the options.
A consumer who purchased fake nutritional supplements noted, “If Coupang was aware of the counterfeit product controversy, it would have been better to establish a procedure to reconfirm whether it was Rocket Delivery right before payment.”
The Item Winner Policy, which is a unique system of Coupang not operating in other online shopping malls like Gmarket, is also a reason for consumer confusion. Item Winner displays the cheapest product among identical items listed on Coupang as the representative seller, along with reviews associated with the same product. Even if the product may not be sold by the aforementioned seller, the product reviews will follow along, and it is often the case that good reviews are listed at the top.
One consumer remarked, “When I check reviews sorted by most recent, sometimes I see comments saying, ‘This seems fake.’ The good reviews were originally attached to a product from another seller, but because the prices of the fraudulent seller’s product are slightly lower, all reviews are shown as if they are for this seller. If you’re not careful, you might think it's a good seller and end up buying it.”
◇ The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and Coupang take a passive response
The biggest problem with fake nutritional supplements is that they can pose a threat to consumer health. It would be fortunate if they were harmless, but consumer anxiety can grow due to the inability to determine the ingredients of counterfeit supplements. There is a significant gap in consumer safety, yet no substantial measures have been taken.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, which is responsible for food safety, has not taken active measures such as recalling fake nutritional supplements reported to Coupang for ingredient testing. However, a representative from the Ministry stated after an inquiry from ChosunBiz, “We are considering testing counterfeit nutritional supplements from overseas direct purchases.” For imported counterfeit products, the Korean Intellectual Property Office and the tariff authorities are in charge.
Coupang is responding only by immediately processing refunds. Typically, a refund is issued after the goods are returned, but for the convenience of consumers who have been harmed by purchasing fake products, refunds are processed immediately, asking the consumers to dispose of the items voluntarily. Affected consumers expect Coupang to reference the selling history of the fraudulent sellers and send notifications verifying the authenticity of products to them. One consumer expressed disappointment, stating, “Even though they promptly issued a refund, knowing there was a problem, it implies that if a consumer is unaware, they wouldn’t receive a refund.”
In response to this, a Coupang representative stated, “We have taken permanent suspension measures against sellers of counterfeit products.” They added, “We will make every effort to minimize the inconvenience to ordering customers and will monitor products more strictly to prevent similar incidents from recurring.”