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.