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Interview

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Korea: How Lotte Group Rethinking Retail in the World’s Most Digitized Market

📍Singapore

South Korea has officially become the first country where over 50% of retail sales happen online, making it a global outlier in digital adoption. In this uniquely tech-savvy environment, Lotte Retail — one of Asia’s largest and most diversified retail groups — is showing what transformation at scale truly looks like. With more than 14,000 physical locations spanning department stores, hypermarkets, 7-Eleven franchises, cinemas, and hotels, Lotte is not just adapting to the new consumer landscape — it’s reshaping it.

At the center of Lotte’s reinvention is a singular, unifying vision: to become the customer’s number one shopping destination, no matter the format or channel. This vision has guided the company’s shift away from siloed business units toward a more integrated, ecosystem-driven model. From K-beauty to groceries, and from luxury malls to digital-first platforms like Lotte On, every touchpoint is now aligned to serve evolving customer expectations — especially in a market where the line between physical and digital commerce has all but disappeared.

A core differentiator in Lotte’s approach is how it embeds AI and automation across operations. Rather than viewing technology as a stand-alone initiative, Lotte leverages it to quietly enhance experience and efficiency — from robotic grocery fulfillment centers and AI-powered sommeliers to smart shopping agents and data-driven retail media. These innovations are not about replacing the human element but about amplifying it through personalization, convenience, and smarter decision-making.

What truly sets the company apart, however, is its leadership philosophy. Instead of anchoring transformation in tech alone, Lotte’s leadership emphasizes humility, learning, and proximity to the customer. Leaders are expected to stay close to the ground — regularly visiting stores, listening to frontline staff, and observing behavior firsthand. In an era of rapid change, this grounded, customer-centric mindset may be the most valuable innovation of all.

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With over 1,000 AI-powered “dark stores” operating as micro-fulfillment centers, the company delivers fresh produce, meat, seafood, and ready-to-eat meals to consumers’ doors in under 30 minutes, at scale.

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