Lotte Accelerates Restructuring... Launches 'Lotte ON' as a Signal of Revival

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Lotte Shopping, which has embarked on a major overhaul of inefficient stores, will officially launch the shopping application ‘Lotte ON’ that integrates seven distribution affiliates at the end of this month. Amid the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, industry interest is high as to whether Lotte ON will become a signal for Lotte's revival.

According to the industry on the 25th, Lotte Shopping will introduce an online shopping integrated platform at the end of this month that connects the shopping malls of seven affiliates?Lotte Department Store, Lotte Mart, Lotte Home Shopping, Lotte.com, Hi-Mart, Lotte Super, and LOHB’s?with a single login.

The biggest feature is the AI ‘Charlotte’ that was used in existing Lotte Department Store and Lotte Mart. Charlotte is a shopping assistant based on the AI computer solution 'Watson,' introduced through a business agreement with IBM in 2016 by Lotte Group, which recommends products or provides store information through chatting with customers.

In addition, by integrating and analyzing approximately 39 million customer data, it combines the strengths of offline and e-commerce. Product power and customer data based on more than 12,900 offline stores nationwide enable the implementation of the ‘O4O’ (Online for Offline - integration of online and offline platforms) strategy.

Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group, indirectly referred to Lotte ON at the first half of the year executive meeting held on January 16, emphasizing, "In this era of change, past success methods are no longer valid," and "Let us discard all existing success stories, crisis overcoming cases, and inertial work, and become a ‘game changer’ who creates a new market ourselves."

Meanwhile, Lotte Shopping is accelerating restructuring. Construction of Lotte Mall Uiwang, scheduled to open in March next year, will be temporarily suspended starting from May.

Previously, five Lotte Super stores and seven Health & Beauty (H&B) stores LOHB’s were closed. By June, three stores including Lotte Mart Yangju, Cheonan Asan, and the warehouse-type discount store Big Market Shinyoungtong will be closed. Cheongju Young Plaza, which has been posting double-digit losses for several years, will also cease operations on May 10.

Lotte Shopping plans to close about 200 stores, accounting for 30% of a total of 700 stores including department stores, marts, supers, and LOHB’s within 3 to 5 years.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.