SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – The utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the retail industry is advancing beyond basic search functionalities, personalized recommendations, and chatbot consultations, towards unmanned and hyper-personalized services.
According to recent industry reports, a competitive race in AI development and application is unfolding across various sectors, including e-commerce, department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, and home shopping networks.
Market Kurly’s Gimpo logistics center and GS25′s new AI character exemplify this trend. Market Kurly has maintained a product wastage rate of less than 1% by optimizing its advance ordering technology through an in-house data collection and analysis system.
This system predicts order volumes across regions by analyzing millions of data points daily, including previous orders, daily sales volumes, customer behavior, purchase history, preferences, weather, days of the week, and promotions.
Market Kurly’s Gimpo logistics center (L) and GS25′s new AI character (R) exemplify this trend. (Image courtesy of Kurly/a screenshot from GS25 Youtube channel)
GS25 is creating YouTube Shorts content using its AI character, “Pyeonjjogi,” tailored to the MZ generation by adapting information obtained from ChatGPT inquiries about GS25 products, such as “foolproof highball recipes.”
GS25 is also using ChatGPT and AI technologies for product development and packaging design. Its chatbot service, AskUp, has led to the creation of the “AskUp Lemon Spark Highball,” with all aspects from taste to price determined through AI, and seasonal salad packaging designed by AI.
Convenience store chains like GS25 and Emart24 are experimenting with AI convenience stores where customers select items and automatically pay upon exit through a registered payment method, unlike self-checkout unmanned stores.
This is facilitated by AI cameras monitoring customer movements and integrating product image information with shelf-installed weight sensors for billing.
Hyundai Department Store has entrusted its AI copywriter, “Lewis,” with creating marketing copy and promotional texts since its introduction in March last year.
Lewis generates an average of 330 marketing titles and pieces of content daily, significantly reducing the time required for selecting promotional phrases from two weeks to just three or four hours.
Hyundai Department Store has entrusted its AI copywriter, “Lewis,” with creating marketing copy and promotional texts. (Image courtesy of Hyundai Department Store)
Following Lewis’s success, Hyundai Green Food, Hyundai Home Shopping, and Hyundai Department Store Duty-Free are also utilizing the AI copywriter. The home shopping industry is introducing broadcasts featuring AI avatar show hosts, displaying various items worn by avatars in real-time 3D images upon customer requests.
Lotte Home Shopping recently launched “LucyTalkLive,” a fashion program featuring the virtual human show host Lucy, which airs every Thursday afternoon. Lotte Department Store collaborated with AI artist Noel Van Dyke for spring visual themes, and Lotte On has been using Upstage’s product recommendation AI since last June.
Lotte Shopping, in partnership with British retail tech company Ocado, is constructing Customer Fulfillment Centers (CFCs) nationwide, automating the entire process from demand forecasting and inventory management to product picking, packing, and delivery scheduling based on AI.
Lotte Home Shopping recently launched “LucyTalkLive,” a fashion program featuring the virtual human show host Lucy. (Image courtesy of Lotte Home Shopping)
Shin Dong-bin, chairman of Lotte Group, has been focusing on AI since 2017, and Kim Sang-hyun, vice chairman, aims to transform Lotte into a retail tech company, exploring AI-driven advertising production services and personalized advertising solutions through an integrated media platform.
Similarly, Shinsegae Group operates AI and data technology teams under Emart, utilizing AI to monitor customer reviews of tens of thousands of products daily, predict store and logistics center energy usage, and forecast event effects.
Emart is also developing a service to measure the fat content in pork belly using computer vision AI technology to ensure customers are informed about the product quality, avoiding sales of excessively fatty cuts.
Professor Chang Joong-ho of Seoul National University of Science and Technology believes that while the retail sector’s use of AI has expanded from product search and recommendation to demand forecasting and customer service through chatbots, there is still much progress to be made.
He anticipates an evolution towards unmanned store modules and hyper-personalized services with storytelling integrated into marketing, expecting these innovations to spread nationwide within the next five years.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
