Coupang freezes mask prices amid coronavirus outbreak

Bom Kim, CEO of Coupang / Courtesy of Coupang

By Baek Byung-yeul

Bom Kim, CEO of local e-commerce platform Coupang, has decided to freeze the price of face masks to ensure more people are able to purchase and protect themselves from the spread of coronavirus, which recently originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

In an email sent to its employees on Jan. 31, the CEO said the online seller is experiencing higher-than-normal demand for masks due to the outbreak, adding that the number of orders as of January 28 was 3.3 million.

"Over the past few days we have faced an unexpected crisis. We were already experiencing high demand from the holiday week when the novel coronavirus outbreak boosted demand for facemasks, hand sanitizer and other urgently needed supplies. As a result, our retail sales volume has exceeded our planned capacity, hitting 3.3 million units on January 28," Kim wrote in the email.

But he added the company decided not to increase the price of face masks to "honor" consumer trust.

"Our sole purpose is to wow our customers. We must do everything we can to honor the trust they place in us. The fulfillment and logistics teams are working hard to meet our delivery commitments. Although the market price of masks rose as demand increased, we have frozen our prices for retail masks. This may create a loss for the company, but we take care of our customers during difficult times," he wrote.

In addition, he added that Coupang will deliver masks and hand sanitizers at no cost to consumers whose orders were cancelled due to stock shortages.

"We plan to ship masks and hand sanitizers free of charge to customers whose Rocket Delivery orders for those items were cancelled because we were unexpectedly out of stock. Our teams are continuing to work to locate and secure inventory on items that customers need. We will do what it takes to secure sufficient supplies and operate our fulfillment centers and delivery network to exceed our customers' expectations," he said.

Amid growing fears over the novel coronavirus, people are in a state of panic, buying face masks to protect themselves from the deadly virus.

Consumers have complained that retailers are profiting unfairly from the outbreak by drastically raising prices.

To let more people purchase masks without giving premiums to retailers, Lee Eui-kyung, minister of food and drug safety, said Sunday the government will closely monitor any act of price hikes of face masks and plans to punish those sellers.

The government will revise the relevant regulations to punish rogue sellers with prison terms of up to two years or fines of up to 50 million won ($41,800).

The government has also set up a joint inspection team comprised of officials from the Fair Trade Commission, the National Tax Service and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to conduct field inspections.

"We will strive to make sure there is no problem in supply by maximizing factory operations and diversifying suppliers," Minister Lee told reporters.

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