Now 'Coupangman' Arrives in Jeju Island Too

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'Coupangman' has landed on Jeju Island. The 'Rocket Delivery' service, where Coupang delivers orders directly the next day, has now started on Jeju Island as well. Until now, island and mountainous areas including Jeju Island were excluded from Coupang's Rocket Delivery service, and deliveries were made using courier companies. Jeju Rocket Delivery is expected to be a signal for Coupang to establish a nationwide next-day delivery network.

According to industry sources on the 13th, Coupang began testing the Rocket Delivery service in Jeju City last month. The Rocket Delivery system is being applied first when orders are placed in Jeju City, not throughout the entire Jeju Island. Coupang is the first to attempt next-day delivery on Jeju Island. Recently, online communities in the Jeju area have consistently shared experiences of Coupangman delivering products within just one day of ordering. Since deliveries using courier companies previously took more than two days, customer satisfaction after the Rocket Delivery test is high.

To prepare for this, Coupang hired and trained Coupangmen in the Jeju area in the second half of last year and set up a small to medium-sized logistics center called 'Coupang Camp.' Starting the test in Jeju City now serves as a final check of the preparation process. However, since the service is currently in the test phase only in Jeju City, Rocket Delivery is not the same as the service in the metropolitan area. In the metropolitan area, if you order by midnight, the product is delivered to the customer the next day. But in Jeju City, orders must be completed earlier than that to enable next-day delivery. The cutoff time may vary or delivery may be delayed depending on the location of the departing logistics center, the size, and weight of the product.

According to Coupang, the basic structure of Rocket Delivery is that once items leave the warehouse, they are transported by trunk vehicles and divided for delivery at regional hubs. Additionally, to reach Jeju Island, the process involves one more step of using a ship. The departure point on the mainland is chosen considering weather conditions and volume, and the optimal route is being found through this test. After the items are unloaded from the ship, they are distributed by region from the Jeju Camp for delivery. Some products are not eligible for next-day delivery. For example, services like 'Rocket Fresh,' which delivers fresh food, are not supported. Through this test, Coupang plans to analyze the demand for Rocket Delivery in Jeju and the optimal delivery routes, and then review the scope and timing of expanding the service to the entire Jeju Island.

Coupang first launched Rocket Delivery in 2014, delivering items directly the next day without using courier companies, focusing on improving customer satisfaction. To this end, it has built logistics infrastructure covering an area equivalent to 193 soccer fields nationwide and has actively invested in using artificial intelligence (AI) to predict customer orders in advance for fast and accurate delivery. Jeju Rocket Delivery suggests that Coupang’s logistics innovation, which it has intensively invested in, is reaching a completion stage by bridging regional gaps. Once the official service starts, Coupang is expected to get closer to its goal of establishing a nationwide next-day delivery network. A Coupang official explained, "We plan to gradually extend the order time for Rocket Delivery in Jeju, which is currently in the test phase, and also gradually increase the number of deliverable items."

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