Coupang Reports Strong Growth and Profitability in Q3

Coupang has reported strong financial results for the third quarter of 2023.

The company’s net revenues reached $6.2 billion, with a year-over-year growth of 21% on a reported basis and 18% on an FX-neutral basis, the South Korean eCommerce platform said in a Tuesday (Nov. 7) press release announcing its earnings.

The product commerce segment played a big role in driving Coupang’s growth, with net revenues of $6 billion, a 21% increase on a reported basis and 18% on an FX-neutral basis. The segment’s adjusted EBITDA also showed improvement, rising by $160 million year over year. The adjusted EBITDA margin for the segment reached 6.7%, a 190 basis points improvement.

The company’s gross profit increased by 27% year over year to $1.6 billion, with a gross profit margin of 25.3%, showing an improvement of 113 basis points. Coupang’s net income for the quarter was $91 million, with a margin of 1.5%, an improvement of $1 million over the previous year. The earnings per share remained consistent with the prior year at $0.05.

In a call with analysts, Bom Kim, founder and CEO of Coupang, pointed to strategies the company had rolled out in the quarter.

“In Q3, we expanded selection across both first and third party,” Kim said. “Both active customers and revenue grew even faster than last quarter. Active customers grew 14% year over year, faster than the rate of any quarter since the pandemic levels of 2021.”

The CEO also noted that the company’s membership program had helped drive sales.

“Since we launched the Eats WOW membership savings program in early Q2, we’ve seen a surge of customer and order growth,” he said. “WOW members participating in Eats has increased 90% since launch, and transaction volume has more than doubled in over 75% of the regions where we’ve launched the program. We expect Eats to be at approximately 20% market segment share by the end of the year, nearly twice the level it was at the launch of the program.”

More retailers are turning to loyalty programs as a means of boosting consumer spending and engagement.

Apparel and accessories company Claire’s recently relaunched its loyalty program, C.CLUB, which now allows members to more easily accumulate points.

Chris Duncan, vice president, consumer insights and digital marketing at Claire’s, said the initiative was significant as it encouraged customer loyalty by enticing them to return and explore new avenues for self-expression.

PYMNTS Intelligence has also found that 65% of credit or debit card users prefer to shop with brands or merchants that offer loyalty or rewards programs in which they participate.

In “Leveraging Item-Level Receipt Data: How Card-Linked Offers Drive Customer Loyalty,” PYMNTS Intelligence found that 60% of individuals were inclined to participate in a product-specific card-linked offer program within the next three months, and about the same number say they are very or extremely likely to utilize card-linked offers for their grocery purchases during the same timeframe. 

The study was based on a survey conducted in July, which gathered responses from over 2,000 U.S. consumers to learn more about consumer interactions with card-linked offers and related topics.