A group of students from French business school ESCP Europe in Paris visited South Korean e-commerce company Coupang last week to learn about the local e-commerce market and gain insight into the rapid growth of Coupang, the company said Sunday.

Fifteen MBA students from ESCP visited Coupang’s headquarters Thursday during their five-day trip to Korea to meet with representatives of leading Korean e-commerce, beauty and automotive companies. 

They met with Coupang’s Senior Director Patxi Gueracague, who shared insights into Coupang’s customer-centered business operation system and the growth potential of the Korean e-commerce market. 

“Considering South Korea’s urbanization, population density and transportation infrastructure, its e-commerce market is only to grow, even compared with other leading cities around the globe,” Gueracague told students.

“Our business is significantly outpacing competitors both online and offline, due to our service that provides truly differentiated customer experience,” he added. 

He also explained that such success in the e-commerce business was based on technology and Coupang considers itself a tech company, not just an online retailer. 

Currently, Coupang sells over 3.5 million products in diverse categories, including fresh food, via a service called Rocket Delivery, which ensures their arrival within a day of the order. An average offline supermarket carries 80,000 products at most. 

Dalibard Nicolas, a 41-year-old student who visited Coupang as part of the group, said he thought Coupang’s innovation was possible thanks to Koreans’ advanced internet system and easy access to mobile phones. 

“It was impressive to see that Coupang developed its own, unique brand as a leading e-commerce company, making such growth in less than a decade,” Nicolas said. 

(ddd@heraldcorp.com)