Distribution Industry Entering Quick Commerce... "Let's Have a Match with B Mart"

Emart, GS Retail, Oasis Market
Entering Immediate Delivery Market in First Half of This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] The quick commerce competition in the distribution industry is intensifying. Emart, GS Retail, Oasis Market, and others plan to launch immediate delivery services within the first half of this year and engage in a showdown with Baemin's B Mart.

According to the industry on the 1st, Emart recently filed a trademark for 'SseukGo' and plans to pilot the quick commerce business in the Gangnam area this month. For this, a five-story building owned by Emart located between Nonhyeon Station on Subway Line 7 and Sinnonhyeon Station on Line 9 will be used as an urban logistics center. An Emart official said, "We are reviewing a pilot project for short-distance delivery as a pilot test for last-mile delivery," adding, "As customer demand for immediate delivery increases, we will offer a new customer experience based on Emart's product strength, which excels in fresh food."

GS Retail will launch the 'Our Neighborhood GS' service by combining offline stores such as GS Supermarket and GS25 convenience stores with Yogiyo's customer traffic within the first half of the year. This service is planned to expand nationwide within the year. Additionally, the number of digital commerce-exclusive logistics centers, currently three, will be expanded to more than 12 within five years. Through this, GS Retail aims to grow its digital commerce business sales to the 5 trillion won level by 2025. Previously, in August last year, the GS Retail and private equity consortium did not include Yomart in the acquisition when acquiring Yogiyo, and Yomart discontinued its service in September last year.

Oasis Market established a joint venture called 'V' last July in partnership with Mesh Korea, which operates the logistics brand 'Boorung,' and is preparing the immediate delivery service 'V Mart.' An Oasis Market official said, "We plan to start quick commerce services within the second quarter of this year and are preparing business expansion using the Uiwang fulfillment center, which is ten times the size of the existing logistics center."

The domestic quick commerce market size was 500 billion won in 2020 and is expected to exceed 5 trillion won by 2025. Currently, Baemin's B Mart is leading the quick commerce market. B Mart operates about 30 logistics centers across Seoul and some areas of Gyeonggi such as Incheon, Bucheon, and Seongnam, providing services in the widest area. Coupang Eats has been offering services in some areas such as Songpa-gu, Gangnam-gu, and Seocho-gu since July last year.

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