This undated photo, provided by E-Mart Inc., shows its electric vehicle charging station in Gangneung on South Korea’s east coast.
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Brick-and-mortar malls are introducing various new services including electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, currency exchange, and even used phone purchases to survive the fierce competition they are engaged in with online shopping portals.
Major discount store chain operators including Lotte Mart, E-Mart, and Homeplus all currently operate EV charging stations.
Lotte Mart runs charging stations at 100 out of 113 outlets nationwide, while Emart operates charging stations at 119 out of 141 stores.
“Customers can charge their cars as they shop for groceries,” Lotte Mart explained.
Offline malls are coming up with more services to assist customer needs.
E-Mart offers a car-sharing service at 45 outlets through which customers can rent out a variety of cars.
At 138 stores, E-Mart operates unmanned automated teller machines (ATMs) that automatically purchase used mobile phones.
Homeplus offers an automated service at 20 outlets that estimates the price of a used car in 5 minutes. At three stores, the discount store chain operator runs a personal storage service for customers.
Offline malls are making efforts to stay competitive as online shopping portals have seen rapid growth ever since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, introducing services that only offline malls can offer.
“These services are helpful in attracting more customers. They lead to higher profits as many customers choose to shop for groceries as they wait to use other services,” E-Mart said.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
