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"500g of lettuce for 400,000 won?" The truth behind the Naver Big Membership Day chaos

[비즈한국] Naver035420's "Big Membership Day" event, which ran for one week until December 1, faced significant disruption toward its end due to controversy over the abuse of discount coupons. Some stores exploited the fact that the promotional coupons for Plus Membership subscribers were funded entirely by Naver, raising their product prices excessively during the event. They inflated prices for 10,000-won items to the 300,000–400,000 won range, then applied coupons to bring the price back down.

The structure allowed consumers to pay as little as 1% of the original inflated price, while sellers could actually profit by receiving subsidies of around 30,000 won per coupon from Naver. Naver responded sternly to these unfair trade practices, notifying the sellers of policy violations and requesting them to halt shipping and cancel orders by the afternoon of the 2nd.

The "Up to 50,000 won" Naver "skimming" pricing scheme

The "Big Membership Day," a dedicated event for Naver members held for seven days from the 25th of last month to the 1st, highlighted the issue of sellers gaming the discount benefits. Numerous instances occurred where stores excessively hiked prices to induce purchases and claim the settlement difference from Naver. As news of the ability to buy goods at bargain prices spread across online communities late in the event, orders surged, prompting Naver to investigate over the weekend and halt the issuance and use of the coupons.

During the event, some sellers set the price of items typically sold for around 10,000 won to over 400,000 won. When various self-applied discounts were combined with Naver's 10% discount coupon, the consumer's final payment dropped to as little as a few hundred won. Such cases primarily occurred in stores selling agricultural/fishery products and retail goods with relatively low unit prices. The actual final prices were extremely low, such as 500 won for 1kg of spinach, 4,200 won for 3kg of onions, and 500 won for 10 packs of wet wipes.

A (30), a resident of Seongdong-gu, Seoul, ordered seafood on the night of the 30th using a membership coupon, with a final payment of 4,600 won. Although the item price was 403,000 won, a total of 268,100 won in store-side discounts (including a 100,000 won instant discount and a 268,100 won additional discount) was applied, along with a 30,300 won discount from the Naver coupon. A stated, "I was notified that the items ordered on Saturday night were shipped on Sunday morning and would arrive today (the 2nd)."

Naver shocked by "loopholes," signals stern response

While consumers enjoyed the discounts, Naver took immediate action to block the unfair transactions. Naver allocates marketing funds to subsidize the discount portion for partner stores. Prior to this event, Naver had informed stores that "Plus Membership coupon costs are covered 100% by Naver." The coupon prone to this abuse was a 10% discount coupon offering up to 50,000 won off for single-item purchases of 400,000 won or more. It is estimated that sales surged as the coupon was unlimited during the event and gained word-of-mouth popularity toward the end. While the subsidy amount varies based on product price and discount conditions, Naver could be on the hook for up to 50,000 won for the 10% coupon per transaction as it was a Naver-funded event. In A's case, the Naver coupon discount amounted to 30,300 won.

Due to the extreme discount rates, rumors circulated on social media suggesting that the sellers' true intent was to harvest personal information. In response, the affected stores posted notices stating, "This is entirely unrelated to any leak of personal information," and warned of legal action against defamatory claims.

Naver identified the situation on the 1st, the final day of the event, and blocked new coupon issuances and usage. Currently, most of the stores involved have removed the products or reverted prices to their original levels. It has been confirmed that Naver individually notified these sellers of policy violations, requesting them to "halt shipping and cancel orders generated by the excessive adjustment of prices to trigger membership coupon applications." Orders not canceled by 1:00 PM on the 2nd were automatically canceled, and settlements for failed automatic cancellations will be withheld.

A Naver official stated, "We view this as a serious abuse case where some sellers interfered with fair trade by excessively adjusting prices and discounts," adding, "We plan to impose sanctions based on our terms and conditions for unfair trades that piggybacked on the event, and separate compensation coupons will be provided to buyers whose orders were canceled."

Naver informed Plus Membership users at 2:00 PM on the 2nd that "cases matching this scenario will be automatically canceled within the day."

Membership Day is a regular event that Naver invests in to build a membership ecosystem spanning shopping, reservations, and travel. Every month, various benefits such as additional points, exclusive coupons, special prices, and free shipping are applied for a set period. This event was the annual "Big Membership Day," which offered a 10% special coupon along with 3% coupons allowing discounts of up to 20,000 won on single items worth 200,000 won or more, up to twice a day.

Seo Yong-gu, a professor of Business Administration at Sookmyung Women's University, noted, "To maintain membership loyalty, cost-effective shopping opportunities for loyal customers are necessary. For 'day marketing' to function properly, a foundation of trust between sellers and buyers must be established, and there were clearly shortcomings in this aspect."