Hwang Hyun-sik's LG Uplus Partners with GS to Launch 'AI Convenience Store'

Hwang Hyun-sik, CEO of LG Uplus (left), and Heo Yeon-su, CEO of GS Retail, are posing for a commemorative photo after signing the MOU.

[Asia Economy Reporter Joselgina] LG Uplus is partnering with GS Retail to introduce a cutting-edge intelligent convenience store based on artificial intelligence (AI) and big data.

LG Uplus announced on the 2nd that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with GS Retail, which operates convenience stores such as GS25, focusing on comprehensive business cooperation including retail-tech advancement and heterogeneous data fusion.

Through this agreement, the two companies will mutually cooperate across a wide range of business areas including ▲building smart stores based on data-driven commercial district and store analysis ▲planning retail-tech solutions for future-oriented stores ▲discovering synergy projects through data collaboration ▲targeting the budget phone and pet markets ▲joint marketing for the MZ generation.

First, LG Uplus’s intelligent CCTV capable of AI video recognition will be applied to retail stores such as GS25 and GS The Fresh. Convenience store product displays and customer promotions will be optimized based on AI and big data. Additionally, they will develop a ‘store customer management solution’ that predicts sales by store and a ‘new store opening analysis solution’ to improve sales of existing stores and identify optimal locations for new stores.

Furthermore, LG Uplus will establish its wireless communication environment and IoT (Internet of Things) solutions in GS25 stores. Priority considerations include ▲‘Premium M2M (Machine-to-Machine communication)’ providing high-speed wireless communication environments to stores where wired communication is unavailable, such as pop-up stores ▲‘IoT Smart Showcase,’ an unmanned digital sales platform that displays products and analyzes customer response data ▲‘IoT Temperature and Humidity Meter’ capable of monitoring the freshness of fresh food at each stage of online and offline logistics.

Building retail-tech stores is a distribution strategy that combines retail and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to transform convenience stores and supermarkets into state-of-the-art facilities. Hwang Hyun-sik, CEO of LG Uplus, emphasized, "We expect retail-tech-based customer experience innovation by combining GS Retail’s online and offline commerce platform capabilities with LG Uplus’s data and AI technologies." This agreement is also an extension of CEO Hwang’s earlier announcement to focus investments on AI and achieve a 30% non-telecom revenue ratio by 2025, transforming into a customer-centric digital innovation company.

In addition, the two companies will promote more precise target customer marketing through data collaboration in home shopping and digital commerce sectors, discuss advancing the GS25 budget phone business, and plan products linking GS Retail’s pet shopping mall with LG Uplus’s pet care package.

Huh Yeon-soo, CEO of GS Retail, said, “This strategic partnership with LG Uplus will provide greater value and convenience to GS Retail’s customers and serve as an opportunity to accelerate digital transformation.”

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