Coupang and its business are the next-level if you study online retail in Western markets. The company’s apps have picked up 25 million downloads, which is a lot given Korea’s 50 million population, while mobile accounts for 75 person of its revenue, and 85 percent of total traffic to the service. (For reference, Amazon said 60 percent of its shopper activity came from devices during Christmas 2014 — a peak time for spontaneous shopping on a mobile or tablet.)
Customer engagement is just one area where Coupang is blazing its trail, the company has its own logistics network and fulfillment centers — not to mention ‘Coupang men’, its last-mile fleet of trucks and drivers.
The company initially relied on third-parties to complete its deliveries, but Coupang Men were introduced to boost its brand and interactions with customers. In addition to delivering goods, they routinely dish out freebies — including candy and samples — and will write thank you notes to Coupang customers too.
Beyond a customer-service focused delivery system — which the company claimed has helped more than triple its monthly revenue over the past six months — Coupang is also fast to deliver. Very fast.
It has offered same-day delivery (or delivery within hours) since early 2014. This new funding and SoftBank’s support, the company said, will ‘fuel innovations’ within its fulfillment and delivery services, as well as its mobile apps. With that in mind, the company plans to pour (yet) more resources into its R&D centers, which are located in Silicon Valley, Seattle, Shanghai and Seoul.
Ref: Tech Crunch
