Coupang Eats, Baemin, Yogiyo Food Delivery Offer Huge Discounts as Online Orders Dwindle in South Korea

Food delivery companies in South Korea are currently experiencing a slowdown in their business as more and more people are preferring to visit restaurants instead of ordering online and having the food delivered to their homes.

Moreover, the COVID-19-related lockdowns have ended thus, people have started to go out and dine in their favorite eating places once again. With this, the number of delivery orders has significantly gone down.

Another reason for the drop in food delivery requests is the higher delivery fees coupled with the soaring prices of food in the country. These things have further reduced the demand for food delivery, which is affecting delivery companies these days.

The Korea Times reported that to encourage people to use delivery platforms again, the companies are offering huge discounts for online orders. One of the leading firms, Coupang Eats, takes the lead and started offering a five to 10% discount for orders placed by Coupang Wow Members.

The discount offer is still said to be on a trial run and only available for members in 18 districts of Seoul for now. Coupang Eats launched this discount promotional event last month in Songpa and Gwanak districts. It was introduced for the company to cope with the difficulties it is currently facing in the food delivery business.

The company recently expanded the reach of service with special discounts to 16 more districts to attract more customers. Baedal Minjok, which is also known as Baemin, is also offering discounts by officially reducing its delivery fees for bundle delivery orders in Gwanak District.

Earlier this month, Baemin expanded this offer to some places in Incheon, such as Gunpo in Gyeonggi Province and Yeonsu. This is also available now in five districts in Daegu City.

As for Yogiyo, it has lowered its delivery fees by 12% in Seoul, but this will only be in effect throughout May.

"You know all the food delivery firms are going through hardships now and we decided to give 2 percent more discounts than the other two rival firms,” an official at Yogiyo said. “Considering that our margin is 12.5%, we barely make any profit from this."

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