South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang is facing mounting criticism after its seller management platform, Wing, experienced an unusual system failure this week. The prolonged outage has disrupted merchant operations and raised concerns about potential impacts on consumer experience and store ratings in the highly competitive online marketplace.
Multiple Coupang sellers reported being unable to access the Wing platform starting Thursday afternoon, encountering login failures and connection errors. While service was briefly restored the same day, the system crashed again on Saturday, leaving sellers struggling to manage critical operations.
The Wing platform serves as the primary interface for sellers to process orders, manage shipments, and handle customer service inquiries. The extended downtime has resulted in significant operational delays, with many merchants unable to fulfill routine tasks for several hours.
"During the outage, we accumulated a backlog of unprocessed orders that will likely delay shipments," said one seller who requested anonymity. "We're anticipating customer complaints, and more worryingly, this could damage our store rating—a crucial performance metric on Coupang."
Seller forums and social media platforms have been flooded with complaints about the recurring technical issues. Some merchants described the situation as "forced downtime," while others expressed frustration over being unable to package and ship accumulated orders.
Coupang's initial response attributed the problem to temporary network issues, with the company stating it was investigating the root cause. However, industry sources suggest the outage might be related to a recent surge in Chinese sellers joining the platform, leading to an unexpected increase in concurrent users.
Notably, while sellers were locked out of the backend system, consumers continued placing orders normally—a situation that has intensified merchant anxiety about fulfillment delays and potential penalties.
The incident has drawn attention to the technical reliability of e-commerce platforms as cross-border trade expands. With growing numbers of international sellers—particularly from China—joining overseas marketplaces, questions are emerging about whether platform infrastructure can scale effectively to maintain service quality.
As of publication, Coupang has not released final findings from its investigation into the Wing platform failures. The company's ability to prevent similar disruptions in the future may prove critical to maintaining its competitive position in the rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape.