Market Kurly drops Market from platform name to expand business scope

South Korea’s Kurly Inc. has changed the name of its grocery delivery service platform Market Kurly to Kurly as part of its corporate strategy to expand beyond fresh groceries into cosmetics goods.

In a notice to company employees on Wednesday, the company said it is dropping Market from its platform name while creating two sub-platforms – Market Kurly, which sells fresh food, and Beauty Kurly, which handles beauty products.

“We’re reorganizing our systems to offer our customers an improved shopping experience beyond food to daily necessities and luxury cosmetics products,” said a company official.

Kurly is a pioneer in Korea’s dawn delivery service market.

Founded in 2014, the unicorn startup garnered market attention with its early morning delivery service under the Market Kurly brand, which delivers products by 7 a.m. the next day if customers order before 11 p.m. the previous day.

The company’s corporate name Kurly Inc. was changed from The Farmers in 2018.

MAIN CUSTOMERS IN THEIR 30s, 40s

Kurly has sought to foster makeup products as one of its key growth drivers given that its main customers are women in their 30s and 40s.

The company began selling cosmetics products through its platform in 2017 and sales of cosmetics goods have increased by almost 200% annually since then.

In March, Kurly added cosmetics manufacturing and sales to its business purpose by changing its corporate articles.

The cosmetics business is also expected to improve its profitability given the relatively low cost of cosmetics sales.

“Except for CJ Olive Young, Korea’s top beauty store chain, there’s hardly any significant player in the domestic cosmetics industry that has competitive e-commerce capabilities,” said an industry official.

“Kurly’s early morning delivery system has many strengths in that sense.”

The unicorn startup plans to go public on the Korea Exchange by year-end to raise funds and give its early investors an opportunity to exit from their investment.

In August, the company received preliminary approval from regulators for an initial public offering (IPO).

Write to Jeong-Cheol Bae at bjc@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.