We are building the future of commerce with technology. Last year, the total number of global registered patents increased by more than 30% year-over-year and the rate of patent applications increased by more than 20%. To celebrate these achievements, we held the Inventors Meetup Spring 2024 on May 30.

‘Keynote Speech’ with Recognition from Leadership

Putting customers at the center of everything we do has enabled us to introduce new services and convenient experiences for customers. To further innovate, we continuously encourage in-house invention among our team and celebrate their achievements through events like the Inventors Meetup. Since 2020, we’ve held three Inventor Meetups, and the most recent Spring 2024 event had the highest number of in-house inventors in attendance to date.

The event started with recognition from Coupang leadership. During the ‘Keynote Speech’ session, Representative Director of Business Management Hanseung Kang and VP of eCommerce Engineering Jie Zhou spoke about the meaning of innovation at Coupang and thanked the inventors in the company.

“There are not many events of this scale that are organized in-house, and the reason why this event is so special is because inventing is one of the most important things we do at Coupang. I think these are the people who are on the cutting edge and fighting for our customers, and I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage them.”- Representative Director of Business Management Hanseung Kang

“Innovation is in Coupang’s DNA. Whether it’s Rocket Delivery or Rocket Fresh, all of our services were born out of innovation, and all of our successes were not just luck, but by design. As the commerce landscape changes, so does our goal of customer satisfaction. Thank you for continuing to do the hard work.” – VP of eCommerce Engineering Jie Zhou

The Rocket Inventor Awards, A Special Motivational Award Ceremony

The Inventors Meetup also features The Rocket Inventor Awards to motivate and celebrate the efforts of inventors who are driving customer experience innovation.

The Rocket Inventor Awards have been held every year, but this year’s Rocket Inventor Awards was a little unique. In the past, we’ve honored a few people with the most patent applications across the company, but this time we’ve diversified the awards to recognize more employees.

The top six patent applicants from each tech organization received the Rocket Inventor Award, the 2023 hire who filed the most patents in the second half of last year received the Rising Star Award, and the two people with the most co-inventors listed as co-inventors received the Dynamic Duo Award.

All of our inventors, including the Rocket Inventor Awards winners, received plaques for their achievements. The plaques are made in five different colors of the Coupang logo. Employees can continue to invent in the future and collect plaques by color.

Coupang’s in-house band club ‘Couband’ performed at the Inventors Meetup

Inventors Connect, A Time to Share Experiences

As part of the event, we hosted special Inventors Connect sessions to hear from the winners about their inventions. Here are two of the stories shared on the day.

• How ‘Data-Driven Decision Making’ Uncovered Repurchase Triggers

Product Designer Youdam Jung credits “data-driven decision-making” for making it easier to invent. When she was working on the “Frequently Bought Items” project, she was faced with the question: “How can we better connect frequently ordered items to purchases?” To find the answer, the team created hypotheses, ran tests, and analyzed the data.

“We wondered which of three things customers would find most useful: when they bought the product, how many times they repurchased it, or if it was on sale. And our tests showed us what customers cared about most. As a designer, this was a unique experience for me. People say design is subjective, but at Coupang, it felt right to use data to understand how customers actually make decisions.” 

Data-driven communication also contributes to a horizontal organizational culture. It’s why Jung joined the company in January of last year and was able to become a co-applicant on a total of eight patents in that year alone. At Coupang, employees are encouraged to speak up and discuss their ideas, regardless of their seniority. We believe that employees can achieve greater things in a culture that fosters collaboration.

• ‘Ruthless Prioritization’ to Ensure a Reliable Shopping Experience

Product Manager Issac Kwon talks about what makes innovation possible: “Ruthless prioritization”. As a member of the Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) organization innovating logistics, Issac worked on a project to create a reliable shopping experience.

Previously, even if an item was in stock in the fulfillment center, if it wasn’t in the exact pickup location, it would show as out of stock in the app. After arriving at the fulfillment center, the item would have to go through a process of “unload – check – receive – move” before it could be stowed to the pickup zone, which would add time to the overall process and at times, make it difficult to achieve our delivery promise timeframe.

But now, as long as the product is in stock somewhere in the fulfillment center, customers can order it. Out-of-stock situations are greatly reduced, making shopping more reliable.

Issac Kwon says that by doing a ruthless prioritization, we were able to change the shopping experience for our customers.

“To address this, we first provided visibility for our inbound teams on products that were either out of stock (OOS) or about to go OOS so that they could be prioritized. Next, we started taking orders earlier but still ensuring that the inventory could be stowed in time to fulfill the customer promise. Through this effort, we are able to take a much larger number of orders every day. “

At Coupang, it’s all about having the courage to let go of secondary things in favor of the one thing we must have. It’s a culture that distinguishes between what’s necessary and what’s simply desired, and it’s often the starting point for invention.

Innovating to improve the lives of our customers, our partners and our employees is something that has driven our success in the past, and something we’ll continue to do going forward. We’re excited to see what inventions our teams come up with next.