[Exclusive] Baemin Introduces "Integrated Discount" with Priority Delivery Fee Discount for Consumers

Integrated Discount Introduced to Baemin Delivery from Mid-July

Expanded Delivery Fee Discounts Aim to Prevent User Churn

Baemin is changing its discount policy, which is currently shouldered by partner store owners, in order to encourage more stores to offer the "free delivery fee" benefit first. This means discounts will be applied to the delivery fee before the food price, thereby lowering the delivery fee paid by customers. The move is also intended to prevent users from leaving Baemin in response to Coupang Eats' expansion of free delivery.

According to industry sources on June 24, Baemin announced that starting July 13, the "discount on all order amounts" applied to Baemin Delivery will be replaced with an "Integrated Discount." The Integrated Discount will apply the discount to the delivery fee that customers pay first, and then apply any remaining discount amount to the food price. If a store using Baemin Delivery services, such as Economy Delivery or Single Household Delivery, chooses the Integrated Discount, the customer's delivery fee will be discounted first.

Attracting Consumers Burdened by Delivery Fees... Reluctance from Store Owners

Baemin introduced this policy to increase orders from consumers who are sensitive to delivery fees. According to Baemin, stores that actively offer delivery fee discounts have up to 4.6 times higher order conversion rates than those that do not, and full delivery fee discounts result in higher conversion rates than a 4,000 won discount on the food price. From July 13, Baemin will support 12% of delivery fee discount costs for 90 days for stores switching to the Integrated Discount.

A Baemin representative said, "The Integrated Discount was introduced to reduce the inconvenience for partner store owners of having to discount the food price and delivery fee separately, and to increase the likelihood of orders from customers who feel burdened by delivery fees. We expect that if the order conversion rate increases through delivery fee discounts, the sales of partner store owners will also rise."

The key issue is how to alleviate concerns among partner stores that the change to the Integrated Discount policy may increase their commission burden. Since Baemin's commission is based on the food order amount and food discounts are applied after delivery fee discounts, store owners worry this could impact their costs. One partner store owner pointed out, "Baemin Delivery charges different delivery fees depending on the distance, so in the end, stores might end up shouldering the delivery cost that should have been paid by customers."

The details of the "Integrated Discount" that Baemin will apply starting July 13. Baemin

Countermeasure Against Coupang Eats' Expansion of Free Delivery

This policy change is also seen as a strategy to counter Coupang Eats' aggressive push for free delivery. Since May 21, Coupang Eats has been offering free delivery even to regular members until the end of August. Previously, only paid Coupang WOW members received free Coupang Eats delivery. This is interpreted as a bold strategy to win back members lost due to the Coupang data breach incident.

Since Coupang Eats expanded its free delivery service, the number of users has seen a slight increase. According to IGAWorks Mobile Index, Coupang Eats' Weekly Active Users (WAU) rose from 8.58 million (April 11–17) before the free delivery expansion to 9.22 million (June 1–7) after. In the third week since implementation (June 15–21), the weekly active users remained at around 8.93 million.

Baemin has also launched active countermeasures, such as a 30-day free Baemin Club membership and summer season promotions. After Coupang Eats expanded free delivery in the last week of May (May 25–31), Baemin’s weekly active users rose to 17.45 million, but remained at around 16.81 million during June 15–21. Baemin is offering a 30-day free trial for its paid membership service, Baemin Club, and is running major promotions, such as the "Meokeulbok Festa," to prevent customer attrition.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.