Kurly's Sixth Straight Profitable Quarter — But Dawn Delivery Isn't What Drove the Margin Improvement
2026-08-23 9:38 AMGeneral
Overview
Kurly posted Q2 2026 operating profit of KRW 27.4 billion (+1,991%), a record quarterly high. That's six straight profitable quarters, and net income has now been positive for two quarters running. But pull the results apart, and the growth wasn't driven by the dawn-delivery, inventory-based model that made Kurly famous — it came from its commission-based 3P (open marketplace) business. GMV at 3P is now growing faster than at either Market Kurly or Beauty Kurly.
Kurly reported its Q2 2026 results on August 12. Revenue came in at KRW 734.8 billion (+27%) and operating profit at KRW 27.4 billion (+1,991%) — the highest quarterly operating profit in the company's history. That marks six straight quarters of operating profit, and net income, at KRW 25.4 billion, has now been positive for two consecutive quarters. Among Korea's five KRW-reporting e-commerce companies (Kurly, SSG.com, Gmarket, 11st, Naver Commerce), Kurly is essentially the only one turning a profit. But look behind these striking numbers, and it turns out a different business — not the dawn-delivery, inventory-based fresh-food model that made Kurly what it is — is what's actually driving the growth.
Kurly started as a dawn-delivery grocery service — what's pushing its results higher now is a commission-based 3P business
What Happened — Q1 and Q2 Results, by the Numbers
Line up Kurly's H1 2026 results side by side, and here's the picture.
Category
Q1 (KRW 100M)
Q2 (KRW 100M)
Revenue
7,457 (+28.4%)
7,348 (+27%)
Operating Profit
242 (+1,277%, highest quarterly figure in company history)
274 (+1,991%, new record)
Net Income
203 (swung to profit)
254 (swung to profit, 2nd straight quarter)
GMV
10,891 (+29%, all-time high)
10,786 (+25.1%)
(Table figures above are in KRW 100 million (억원) units.)
In Q2, gross margin came to 35.3%, up 1.5 percentage points year over year, and cash and equivalents reached KRW 372.9 billion, up 73% year over year to an all-time high. Both quarters carry the "record high" label often enough that the upward trend is unmistakable.
The Core Insight — What Saved Kurly Wasn't Dawn Delivery. It Was the Open Marketplace
Break GMV down by business line, and the picture changes. In Q2, GMV at Market Kurly (the core fresh-food/HMR business) grew 25.7% year over year, and Beauty Kurly grew 13.5%. But GMV from seller-fulfilled products — the so-called 3P (open marketplace) business — grew 32.1%, outpacing both. The company doesn't hide this: it directly attributed the Q2 gross margin improvement to "a lower cost of goods sold from a growing share of commission-centric businesses like seller-fulfilled products (3P)."
Why this matters comes down to what Kurly actually is as a company. Kurly built its name as a curated commerce company that buys inventory itself and delivers it before dawn. That inventory-based model rewards a sharp eye for product curation and cold-chain logistics, but it also means carrying the full weight of purchase cost and inventory risk — which makes margin hard to come by. A 3P marketplace works differently: the seller handles inventory and delivery, and Kurly collects only a commission, so margin improves as GMV grows without adding to cost of goods sold. A meaningful share of the power now driving Kurly's swing to profitability is coming from exactly this commission-based business. Whatever the brand still signals to consumers — "dawn delivery, curated fresh food" — Kurly's income statement is already starting to look more like an open-marketplace platform such as Coupang or 11st.
Business Impact — A Springboard for a Renewed IPO, and a Question of Identity
Kurly pursued a KOSDAQ listing in 2022 and withdrew it. At this earnings release, CFO Kim Jong-hoon said the company would "build the foundation for a successful IPO going forward, on the back of strong growth in both our core and new businesses." Record cash and equivalents (KRW 372.9 billion) and a six-quarter streak of operating profit are genuinely useful cards to play in another run at a listing. Being the one company, among Korea's five KRW-reporting e-commerce players, consistently posting a profit is also a persuasive story to tell investors.
That said, the changing character of this growth is worth watching too. The more the 3P share expands, the more Kurly looks like a "commission-based platform" and the less it looks like a "curated inventory-based retailer." This tracks a path Coupang has already walked — broadening its center of gravity from Rocket Delivery (inventory-based) to Rocket Growth (marketplace). It's a proven growth formula, but following it also puts Kurly into more direct competition with the big open-marketplace players. As the original differentiator — curated fresh food — fades in relative weight, how Kurly holds its own against assortment-and-price competitors like Coupang, Naver, and Gmarket is the next question.
From a practical standpoint, when reading next quarter's results, tracking how the growth rates of Market Kurly, Beauty Kurly, and 3P diverge from each other will be a more accurate gauge of where this company is really headed than the headline numbers.
✦RIT's Insights
The number most worth watching in this release isn't the 1,991% jump in operating profit — it's that 3P GMV growth (+32.1%) outpaced the core business (Market Kurly, +25.7%). Kurly is still introduced to the press and consumers as "the original dawn-delivery company," but its actual income statement has already taken a step away from that brand image. This is a case of a company's name and how it actually makes money quietly diverging, and in RIT's view, that gap is exactly what investors will zero in on during any future IPO review. Investment and IPO teams shouldn't take the company's language about "pursuing a successful IPO" entirely at face value — 3P's growth rate and its margin contribution are likely to be presented as the central investment thesis in any renewed listing attempt, so valuation comparisons should weigh Kurly against open-marketplace platforms, not just pure inventory-based retailers.
Second, while the six-straight-quarter profit streak is genuinely impressive on its own, it's worth examining the quality of that profit. Profit built from improving inventory-based margins and profit built from expanding commission revenue carry different degrees of sustainability. The latter can be built up relatively quickly, but it also raises the intensity of competition against already-proven open-marketplace leaders like Coupang and Naver. How much of its original strength — curated fresh food — Kurly can preserve while growing 3P in that competition is the thing to watch. From an operational standpoint, two groups need to respond differently here. For e-commerce category MDs, Kurly's 3P expansion is a new channel opportunity for sellers — but if 3P GMV keeps growing faster than the core business, it's worth watching closely how Kurly's seller commission and exposure policies evolve from here. For fresh-food supplier teams, on the other hand, the fact that Kurly's profitability gains are coming from commission-based 3P rather than inventory-based purchasing should be read as a signal that Kurly's negotiating leverage and buying policy toward its inventory suppliers may shift from what it's been.
Finally, from the perspective of Korean retail broadly, it's worth watching how quickly loss-making SSG.com, Gmarket, and 11st try to copy this formula. Gmarket's own H1 2026 GMV growth of +14% — its first rebound in four years — may already point in a similar direction (leaning into the open marketplace). That Kurly has become essentially the only profitable KRW-reporting e-commerce company is a useful reference case for teams benchmarking these competitors: expanding a 3P/commission-based business may be a proven path to profitability. If the road to profitability is converging on a single formula, the next axis of competition is likely to shift from "who turns a profit first" to "who builds the more compelling 3P ecosystem."
