Hema (盒马) coupon blunder leaves 10,000+ orders unfulfilled, merchants cite operator error

What happened

Shoppers on Hema (盒马), Alibaba’s high-profile grocery chain that blends mobile-first ordering with offline stores, reported that large 50-yuan coupons allowed them to buy everyday goods for fractions of their normal price — in some cases paying only a few jiao or a few yuan. It has been reported that orders for dishwashing liquid from ZhiboSen (植泊森) and CARMIFOD flagship stores were accepted at those anomalous prices, then subsequently refused for shipment.

Merchant and platform response

The two affected stores, which reportedly operate under the same company and sell on Hema via the Yunxianghui (云享会) channel, blamed an operational mistake on March 29 for a flood of ultra-low-price orders that exceeded available inventory. It has been reported that the merchant later updated its product page saying the error caused more than 4 million yuan in stock losses and that over 10,000 orders could not be fulfilled, asking customers to request refunds.

Hema told the media it is pressing the merchant to "actively communicate and properly handle orders and after-sales" to protect both buyers and sellers. It has been reported that the original story was posted by a user on Phoenix Net’s Dafenghao platform, which the site notes only provides storage services for user-uploaded content.

Why it matters

Platform marketplaces face a perennial tension: how to let merchants set prices and run promotions while preventing catastrophic system or human errors. Who ultimately bears the cost — the third‑party seller, the platform, or the consumer — matters for trust and for regulators watching consumer protection in China’s sprawling e‑commerce sector. Will tighter coupon controls and audit trails follow? That remains to be seen.