[비즈한국] Toss Shopping has recently shown moves to strengthen its competitiveness as a "lowest-price shopping mall" through a policy overhaul. However, with the introduction of a structure that compares and selects prices among sellers for the same product, complaints are spreading among sellers that it may incite a race to the bottom in pricing. Industry insiders raise concerns that if this atmosphere leads to seller attrition, it could become a burden on Toss Shopping's growth strategy.
"Lowest-Price Competition Inevitable"
According to industry sources, Toss Shopping revamped its operating policy for sellers earlier this month. The new system evaluates the price, purchase frequency, and customer satisfaction of sellers offering the same product to display the most "reliable seller" in the top recommended section. Toss stated, "The purpose is to ensure customers can purchase good products at the most reasonable prices," adding, "It is a method adopted by various e-commerce companies, and Toss Shopping calculates it by comprehensively considering various factors such as price competitiveness, purchase frequency, and satisfaction."
This is similar to the "Item Winner" system operated by CoupangCPNG. Coupang's Item Winner is a structure where the product of the seller who offers the lowest price among multiple sellers of the same item is displayed as the representative listing. This policy has been controversial for fueling price competition among sellers.
Sellers who have experienced intensified price competition due to Coupang's Item Winner worry that because Toss Shopping has introduced a similar structure, it could lead to the same side effects. One seller claimed, "Toss unilaterally sets a recommended price, and if you don't match it, they've changed it so you can't advertise (get featured on the main screen)," adding, "Since sales barely happen without ad exposure, it is essentially a structure that forces the lowest-price sales."
Regarding this, Toss explained, "It is a method adopted by many e-commerce platforms, and we are aiming for a structure where competitive products get more opportunities for recommended exposure." They added, "We are reviewing supplementary measures to prevent gaps between the recommended price and market prices, and in particular, we plan to introduce a feature for reporting miscategorized or incorrect matches to prevent the issue of recommended prices being set differently from actual market prices."
Toss Shopping, which made its market debut with a group-buying service in April 2023, shifted its business direction to an open market model in September of the same year. With the addition of a shopping menu at the bottom of the main Toss app screen late last year, its visibility increased significantly, leading to an aggressive business expansion strategy. Viva Republica, the operator of Toss, declared this year as the "first year of commerce" and expressed its commitment to entering the e-commerce market.
This year, Toss Shopping is focusing on scaling up. The number of MD (Merchandiser) staff, which was around 10 at the end of last year, increased to over 200 as of September this year. Along with expanding MD staff, the pace of acquiring tenant merchants has accelerated. The number of merchants on Toss Shopping increased nearly twofold from 37,584 in April to 72,683 in September. One seller remarked, "Toss Shopping MDs are very aggressive in their recruitment efforts. It's hard to find a seller who hasn't been contacted by a Toss Shopping MD at least once." Toss Shopping has stated its goal is to have all of the approximately 600,000 online sellers in Korea join Toss.
'Grown in Size, but' Commerce Competitiveness Remains a Question Mark
While the external growth is rapid, many evaluate that the platform's competitiveness remains questionable. Perspectives suggest that it will not be easy to attract excellent sellers because it lacks core e-commerce competitive edges such as its own logistics base or delivery speed, and there is no distinct advantage in terms of commissions. Toss Shopping sets the product sales commission at approximately 8%, and if payment commissions are added, the commission rate is around 11%. This is higher than Naver Smart Store (combined commission rate of 6-7%), leading to criticism that the cost burden on sellers is relatively high.
There are also numerous complaints about operational convenience. One seller lamented, "The biggest problem with Toss Shopping is that sellers cannot freely register or modify products. You have to get approval for every product registration, and modifications are impossible." They further pointed out, "Once, due to a system error at Toss Shopping, product categories were mixed up. Food items were registered in the clothing category, and even in such situations, sellers could not fix it themselves, leading to a flood of complaints."
On top of this, with the recent introduction of an operating policy that seems to force the lowest-price sales, some say the fatigue of sellers has reached its limit. Some raise concerns that such changes could accelerate seller attrition and inadvertently act as a burden on Toss Shopping's growth strategy.
An industry official said, "Toss Shopping's intention in aggressively recruiting sellers seems to be to induce lowest-price competition within the platform. It's questionable how many sellers will remain in this structure when it doesn't have the high traffic of Coupang."
Lee Jong-woo, a professor of Business Administration at Ajou University, also pointed out, "Platforms where sellers flock are places with high sales volume or high margins. Currently, Toss Shopping satisfies neither. If they also have to lower their sales prices, the rate of seller attrition is bound to accelerate." He added, "Sellers of good products might leave, leaving only those trying to sell distressed inventory. If the quality of products drops, the number of customers visiting the platform will also decrease."
Toss Shopping stated, "Before and after this policy change, we have been carrying out various support activities for coexistence with sellers. Toss bore the full cost of marketing for the 10% point-back event held in October, and we continue to provide additional discount support for competitive products after the introduction of the recommended price service. We are reviewing various seller growth programs and benefit policies to support the stable growth of sellers. Furthermore, we always prioritize the rapid and stable business operations of our sellers, and internal system improvements are also proceeding quickly to keep pace with the increasing number of sellers."