A view of “Lotte On,” Lotte’s integrated on-line shopping platform.

President Cho Young-jae of Lotte Shopping’s e-Commerce Business Division announces strateges on the new e-Commerce brand Lotte On at the Lotte World Tower in Seoul on April 27. (Photos: Lotte)

Lotte, one of the nation’s largest retailer conglomerates, launched an integrated online shopping platform, dubbed “Lotte On,” venturing into the e-commerce market on April 28 in earnest.

Lotte On is an online shopping platform designed to integrate online shopping malls which are operated by seven subsidiary retailer units of Lotte Group.

The units are Lotte Department Store , Lotte Mart, Lotte Super, LOHB’s, Lotte.com, Lotte Hi-Mart and Lotte Home Shopping. With the launch of Lotte On, Lotte is expected to stage an overall battle with conventional e-Commerce leaders like Coupang.

Lotte Shopping held a meeting with reporters at the Lotte World Tower on April 27 and unveiled the new e-commerce brand Lotte On, armed with “weapons” that have been not seen before, the company’s officials said.

Key points of the new online brand are personalized services tailored to meet each person’s needs, and “O4O” (online for offline), an online connection of Lotte Group’s 15,000 offline outlets.

Personalized services are based on data of Lotte Group’s integrated Lotte Members customers. Lotte offers services tailored to meet customers’ needs by analyzing data of Lotte Members with about 39 million members.

Lotte On is similar to Netflix, an American media service provider, which recommends content tailored to each customer’s needs by analyzing his or her tastes.

O4O is a concept of connecting Lotte Group’s offline outlets that can be seen in the nation’s core commercial centers. For example, about 120 Lotte Mart outlets across the nation will change into fulfillment centers, a step to allow Lotte Group to offer tight-knit online deliveries without making massive investments into logistics networks the way Coopang has done.

President Cho Young-jae of Lotte Shopping’s e-Commerce Business Division, said, “(We) aim to offer exquisitely recommended services to the extent users feel no need of searching items.” Lotte targets to post 20 trillion won in on-line sales by 2023, he added.

Customers who are accustomed to offline shopping can gain access to information on the events of offline outlets without bothering to come there by allowing Lotte On to connect about 15,000 off-line outlets.

Lotte On allows customers to choose delivery methods. Customers who want “immediate delivery” can receive products within one-and-a-half hours of ordering them in cooperation with Lotte Mart.

Lotte Department Store introduces a quick delivery concept, initially targeting the Seoul metropolitan area.
Early morning deliveries are offered along with the opening of “fresh centers” targeting online customers for Lotte Super.

“Smart Pick” services are offered so that online customers can pick up products they have ordered at about 7,000 offline outlets. Existing offline outlets are utilized to introduce diverse delivery methods.

Rental shopping space, which has seen customers declining in the wake of their changing shopping patterns, will be utilized as logistics space.

 
Lotte will establish an integrated logistics service regime, tearing down each subsidiary’s barriers while integrating each subsidiary’s membership to increase benefits.

Lotte has introduced an open market in which people can freely register Lotte On items they want to sell.