According representatives of the retail industry on March 8, three large retailers, E-Mart, Home Plus and Lotte Mart, saw huge growth in their retail sales through mobile platforms at 200 percent, 184.7 percent and 166.5 percent respectively. (image: E-Mart)
SEOUL, March 9 (Korea Bizwire) — Large retailers in Korea have achieved great success in the operation of their mobile shopping platforms, amidst a recent slump in their offline store operation caused by ordinances restricting operating hours, and the economic slow-down.
E-Mart has even started to operate a distribution center for online shopping operations only, while Lotte Mart is planning to follow suit and open a similar center in the second half of the year.
According representatives of the retail industry on March 8, three large retailers, E-Mart, Home Plus and Lotte Mart, saw huge growth in their retail sales through mobile platforms at 200 percent, 184.7 percent and 166.5 percent respectively. However, E-mart’s offline store sales increased by only 0.9 percent, while Home Plus and Lotte Mart saw their sales decrease by 1.5 percent and 7.7 percent.
Sales from mobile operations account for large share of online shopping operations, as Home Plus saw its share of mobile sales increase from 14 percent in 2013 to 27.4 percent in 2014. Home Plus has introduced a ‘Curation Service’ that provides selected products for certain types of customers on their mobile shopping app.
Lotte Mart’s share of mobile sales among online sales increased from 10 percent in 2013 to 21.2 percent last year, while its mobile shopping application has been downloaded more than 1 million times. Lotte Mart’s app is loaded with weekend only promotion coupons, and free of charge wireless data use. E-Mart has also launched a mobile shopping app that provides a visual depiction of offline store displays.
By J. W. Choi (summerchoi@koreabizwire.com)
