South Korea’s leading e-commerce platform Coupang Inc. has launched an instant delivery service for groceries and daily necessities to enhance its competitiveness in the fast growing delivery market.

Coupang has included ‘mart’ icon in its Coupang Eats app, its food delivery platform. On a trial basis in Songpa-gu, Seoul, users can receive delivery of food and daily supplies such as detergent and stationery within 15 minutes after placing an order. The service is similar to B-Mart, the instant grocery delivery service of the country’s No.1 food delivery app Baedal Minjok (Baemin).

The service is expected to expand rapidly to other regions just like Coupang Eats that had only served residents in Gangnam but quickly widened the service area in just a year after its launch.

Industry watchers had already expected Coupang would launch the quick grocery delivery service because it applied for new trademarks including Coupang Eats Mart and Coupang Eats Mart Rider. It also registered other trademarks seemingly related to express delivery service such as Quick Commerce, Q-Commerce and Q-Delivery.

With the launch of the new service of Coupang, the competition in the local retail market is expected to get more heated up. Market experts expect Coupang would accelerate the growth of the fast delivery market.

Coupang said it has rolled out the test service as part of its efforts to provide a better service to its customers.

By Kim Tae-sung, Park Dae-ui and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]