Controversy over discrimination against Musinsa “Suspend only women, stop men who request coupons”

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The fact that the online fashion shopping mall Musinsa issued coupons only to female customers was revealed.

Musinsa posted an apology in the name of CEO Man-ho Cho on the official Instagram on the 7th, saying, “We sincerely apologize for disappointing with the controversy over issuing coupons to specific customers.”

CEO Cho said, “The controversial coupon was issued for the purpose of expanding the purchase of female customers, and was initially applied only to female products.” The brand was also included,” he explained.

“This is an obvious mistake and fault of our company in the process of issuing coupons,” he said. “We apologize once again to customers who were disappointed with Musinsa due to this coupon issue.”

As a remedy, it said that all coupons and promotions that provide benefits according to gender will end with coupons that have already been issued. In addition, he added that the same level of discount coupons were issued as of the last 6 days to customers who received relatively small benefits because they were unable to obtain coupons.

He said, “I am very sorry for the limited application of coupons for some brands or products,” he said. “I will work out a way to allow the use of coupons more widely in the future.”

This controversy arose when a content posted on an online community saying, “A gentleman discriminates against men and women to provide discount coupons.” One netizen wrote, “A man also commented for a coupon and was suspended for 60 days. Even though it is a diamond level, it is cheaper to live with a sister account.”

In the fashion market where the majority of female consumers are, Musinsa has attracted men in their teens and twenties through marketing targeting young men. As of September 2019, of the 5.5 million Musinsa members, 71% were in their teens to 20s and 54% were male members.

Accordingly, after the controversy over the coupon discrimination, male users are responding negatively, such as “Musinsa VIP, but has a great betrayal”, “Go to another shopping mall,” “Men’s answer for boycotting Musinsa’s products.”

On Instagram, where the apology was posted, comments such as “I’m posting an apology right away because I don’t like public sentiment”, “I lost a cow and repaired the barn”, and “I was very disappointed as a person who used it for a long time.”

Reporter Jeong Hye-jeong [email protected]