Realizing Smart Shopping – Enginered by SK Telecom for Lotte Department Store

SK Telecom today announced that it, together with Lotte Department Store, will create a new shopping culture by realizing a truly smart shopping environment via ‘Smart Department Store,’ a...

SK Telecom today announced that it, together with Lotte Department Store, will create a new shopping culture by realizing a truly smart shopping environment via ‘Smart Department Store,’ a package of smart shopping solutions designed to revolutionize people’s shopping experience.

Applied to Lotte Department Store Bundang Branch, Smart Department Store consists of ‘Smart Shopper’, an omni-channel platform that enables cartless shopping; ‘Smart Table’, a table built with a multi-touch screen that offers diverse shopping information; and ‘Smart Locker’, a storage cabinet that can be used via a mobile phone.

Applied to the groceries store located on the first basement floor of Lotte Department Store Bundang, Smart Shopper is an omni-channel platform built with advanced ICT – i.e. barcode scanning, Near Field Communication (NFC) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technologies – to enhance customers’ shopping experience at large retail stores. To begin shopping, customers will pick up a ‘Shopper Scanner’, a designated barcode scanning device – instead of a bulky shopping cart – at ‘Rental Kiosk’ located at the entrance. With the 16-centimeter bar-type device, users can read barcodes on items to add them to their own virtual shopping carts.

Also while shopping, they can conveniently check and edit items in their shopping carts at large touch screen devices called ‘Order Viewers’ installed in several spots within the store. In the fourth quarter of 2016, SK Telecom and Lotte Department Store plan to add more advanced features to these devices so that they can provide detailed information on fresh products being sold at the store – e.g. place of origin, production traceability, stock availability, etc. – to increase product reliability and serve as a virtual display stand for bulky, hard-to-display items. Once they are done shopping, customers can walk up to a self-checkout kiosk named ‘Smart Checkout’, instead of the existing POS checkout counters, and place their device on the NFC-enabled ‘Smart Dongle’ to confirm selected items, the total amount and make payment. They no longer have to wait in a long line at the checkout counter, and the items they have purchased will then be delivered to their homes at the desired date and time, thus eliminating the cumbersome process of packing and carrying groceries.

Future Plans

After verifying the effectiveness of Smart Department Store currently applied to the Bundang branch, SK Telecom and Lotte Department Store plan to expand its application to all 34 branches of Lotte Department Store across the nation.

In addition, the two companies will continue to design the future of Smart Department Store by adding more features including ‘Smart Signage’, ‘Smart Closet’ and video-based Business Intelligence System ‘T-View’. Smart Signage refers to LED displays that can be installed on outer walls of department stores to promote products and events. Smart Closet is an interactive touchscreen display attached to empty spaces like walls or columns within the department store building to display items that are not physically placed at the store. Moreover, once tagged by a user’s smartphone, Smart Closet becomes synchronized with the shopping cart of the user’s Lotte.com account, thus enabling the user to review shopping cart and purchase history; search for items; and make new purchases.

“By combining ICT and shopping, we have successfully transformed the conventional department store into a smart shopping venue that offers new and unprecedented value and experience for customers,” said Kim Young-joo, Senior Vice President and Head of Enterprise Business Office of SK Telecom. 

Read more at: http://www.netmanias.com/en/?m=view&id=korea_ict_news&no=10779

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