Matches made in heaven: Entrepreneur couple share their love for the union of Marketplace and Rocket Growth
In ideal marriages, each side brings out the best in the other, often bringing complementary strengths to the table to create a union that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Minsoo and Sookyung Kim, pictured above with their poodle Poguri (noodle), are a case in point.
The husband-and-wife duo run a pair of companies, Soogangs.com (home décor) and Today’s Balance (nutritional supplements), making over 150 thousand dollars each month. Minsoo’s strength lies in his strong, quick, and decisive execution, while Sookyung, who also is a film actress, brings her keen artistic eye and the composure to balance her husband’s zeal when he latches on to a new idea.
Their first company, Soogangs.com, was actually born from a thought that Minsoo had while working part-time at Coupang as a Flex Driver in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I had no experience working in white-collar jobs or the service industry,” he said. “While trying to figure out how to earn a living, I ended up doing Coupang Flex.” As he used his old car to deliver Coupang orders part-time, he came to a life-changing realization. “There are more and more products going through the logistics center each day. Why couldn’t I make and sell products too?”
Gripped by this idea, Minsoo shared it with his wife and they quickly set out to execute. They registered as a business so that they could sign up for Coupang Marketplace. “When we went to the tax office to apply, the officer asked me what the name of our business was. We hadn’t thought about it,” Minsoo said. True to his nature, he decided it right on the spot. “My wife’s name is Sookyung, and our friends and I call her Soogang and Soogangs. So I went with Soogangs.com.”
Sookyung had a passion for decorating their home with high-quality yet affordable items, so home décor was a natural starting place. When starting, for example, Minsoo checked the rug they had in their apartment for the name of the manufacturer. He found that they had a factory located just 30 minutes from their place. After a quick phone call, Minsoo drove right over and won a contract. “I’m the kind of person who will insist on coming over even if you tell me not to,” he said with a laugh.
As Minsoo set out to get operations rolling, Sookyung formulated the concept and brand image. She also set up their studio and designed the product pages, even taking the photos of each product herself. Together, they created a bedding brand called comeprima.
Through their strategic use of the various seller tools available on Coupang Marketplace, the couple were able to quickly increase exposure of their brand. “Using Coupang’s free exposure promotion, we were able to keep increasing sales and revenue,” said Minsoo. “I recommend sellers take the time to understand and use these kinds of advantages that Coupang offers. We got a lot of sales and product exposure from the free exposure promotion, and since then, we’ve been using it continuously.”
When the couple started their business in 2021, they started with a little over 11 thousand dollars in business funds. But thanks to Marketplace, by Fall 2022, they increased monthly sales to 75 thousand dollars. The real magic, however, began when they combined Coupang’s Rocket Growth service with the benefits of Marketplace to help take their successes to the next level.
For their next business idea, focusing on the rapidly flourishing nutritional supplement market in Korea, Sookyung and Minsoo prepared and planned the products of their second company Today’s Balance with Coupang customers in mind from the very beginning. After searching through three years of data to find their winning niche, they settled on lactoferrin, a protein that helps with iron absorption, and glutathione, an antioxidant that plays a very important role in protecting cells in the body from damage.
As before, Minsoo concentrated on operations, including negotiating with manufacturers and acquiring the necessary licenses, while Sookyung shaped the brand image and product designs with her artistic sensibility to appeal to Coupang customers. Unlike other nutritional supplement packaging, which tends to emphasize functionality, Sookyung opted for a bright, minimalist design. For example, their lactoferrin product includes additives such as grapefruit, lemon balm, and mango, so she applied a grapefruit and jade-colored gradation to the box and bottle packaging to represent how these nutrients were being absorbed into the body.
Of Coupang’s various sales methods available to merchants, Rocket Growth provided the perfect avenue for the entrepreneur couple to quickly test the waters for their new products before making bigger investments. Rocket Growth combined the best of both worlds for Today’s Balance—the benefits of Coupang’s end-to-end fulfillment and logistics network available Rocket Delivery direct-purchase partners, together with the freedom and control available to merchants using Marketplace.
Unlike the traditional third-party marketplace model, in which the sellers manage inventory, warehousing, delivery, returns, and customer service themselves, Rocket Growth only requires sellers to ship products to Coupang, which then takes care of everything else. Rocket Growth also gives sellers the freedom to determine the quantity and selling price as needed, giving them more flexibility than in the direct-purchase method.
“Rocket Growth is so great. The products gain customer exposure and they’re delivered quickly—the delivery process begins within five minutes after an order is placed,” said Minsoo. “It’s also nice that we can adjust the quantity and price as we want. It’s helpful to stock only a small amount and increase it after seeing the customer response.” He added, “Once we started Rocket Growth, sales increased so much that we ran out of products to ship to Coupang.”
Today, over 70% of the 150 thousand dollars the couple make each month through their two businesses comes from Coupang Marketplace and Rocket Growth. They’ve also hired four new employees. Do they have any issues running two very different businesses at the same time?
Sookyung and Minsoo actually see it as a plus. Because their home décor business was generating stable income, they could aggressively market their new nutritional supplement products, harmonizing their income streams through the combination of Marketplace and Rocket Growth.
The successful entrepreneurs continue learning voraciously about their businesses, including attending an advertising seminar held by Coupang, thinking of new ideas they can implement to continue growing their businesses together as a couple. “I have a lot of curiosity about many different things, and even if something doesn’t seem to work, I think we can succeed if we put in the effort,” said Minsoo.