In the month after Coupang's massive personal data leak, the number of Coupang users declined while users of major rival e-commerce companies increased. Some said it is still hard to conclude the change is statistically significant, but across Korea's e-commerce industry, competition to attract so-called "defectors from Coupang" is heating up. Moves are underway to go beyond simple discounts or one-off events and overhaul delivery structures and overall membership strategies.
According to IGAworks Mobile Index, a data tech corporations, on the 4th, Coupang's weekly active users (WAU) fell about 4.1%, from 27,843,021 in the fourth week of November last year, when the data leak occurred (Nov. 24–30), to 26,685,323 in the fourth week of December (Dec. 22–28).
By contrast, competitors saw user gains. During the same period, Gmarket users rose about 3.4% from 3,441,968 to 3,558,432, and 11Street increased 6.3% from 3,781,113 to 4,018,122. Naver Plus also grew 11%, from 3,250,197 to 3,745,743.
Payment data showed a similar trend. Coupang's estimated weekly credit and debit card payment amount fell more than 7%, from about 1.0296 trillion won in the first week of the incident to around 956.2 billion won a month later.
Consumer anxiety over the data leak appears to have affected Chinese e-commerce platforms such as AliExpress, Temu and Shein. AliExpress's weekly active users fell 17.4%, from 4,461,763 in the fourth week of November to 3,684,814 in the fourth week of December, and Temu declined from 3,807,337 to 3,601,455 (-5.4%) over the same period. Shein plunged 32.6%, from 918,105 to 619,038.
Over the same period, estimated payment amounts also fell, with AliExpress down 32.5% from 28.29 billion won to 17.67 billion won, and Temu down 22.2% from 16.27 billion won to 12.65 billion won. Shein's estimated payments were nearly halved, from 1.07 billion won to 550 million won.
Amid this trend, domestic e-commerce companies are rolling out new services to absorb "defectors from Coupang." Gmarket is foregrounding "weekend delivery," introducing a service that guarantees next-day arrival for items ordered by 8 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. While it already had some fast-delivery items, it had not clearly promised arrival times for weekend orders.
Naver Plus on the 17th partnered with Lotte Mart to begin offering the subscription-based delivery service "Zetta Pass," worth 2,900 won per month, free to membership users. "Zetta Pass" supports unlimited free delivery on purchases of 15,000 won or more, and allows customers to choose delivery days and three-hour time slots. Naver Plus earlier partnered with Netflix and Yogiyo to bundle OTT and food delivery services, continuing a strategy to counter the "Coupang ecosystem."
Alongside the delivery race, membership strategy is emerging as a key battleground. Conscious of the loyal customer base built by Coupang's "Wow Membership," companies are moving to strengthen benefits that are palpable over the long term rather than short-term discounts. SSG.com last month unveiled a new paid membership, "SSG Seven Club," putting forward a subscription model that combines rewards with content partnerships. It offers 7% rewards on grocery purchases along with benefits such as vouchers for the OTT service Tving and discount coupons for Shinsegae Department Store Mall and Shinsegae Mall.