Lotte Shopping, the e-commerce arm under retail giant Lotte, said Wednesday it plans to inject some 1 trillion won ($705 million) to boost its online grocery business. In partnership with Ocado, UK’s retail solutions provider, the company will adopt the Ocado Smart Platform, which uses artificial intelligence, big data and machine learning technologies to offer fast delivery service of fresh groceries. The platform operates automated fulfillment centers where hundreds of robots sort and pi

Global resort brand Capella announced its South Korean debut in Yangyang, Gangwon Province, some 107 kilometers from Seoul. Under the 830 billion won ($584 million) project, the luxury beach resort will be constructed near Songjeon beach by the second half of 2025. The company said Capella Yangyang aims to become the largest wellness resort here with a total of 261 rooms. There will be restaurants, convention halls and a total of five swimming pools, a mixture of indoor and outdoor. The resort

Retailers called off a series of Halloween-themed marketing events following an overnight crowd surge that killed at least 153 people, among some 100,000 who turned up for Halloween festivities in Itaewon, a popular nightlife district in central Seoul, late Saturday. Many retail companies here had planned to use Halloween to promote their products catering to young consumers, but events have quickly been canceled following the government’s announcement of a national mourning period throu

South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang said Wednesday it has launched a cross-border online shopping service in the burgeoning Taiwanese market, saying it would help small and medium-sized Korean companies expand their businesses overseas. Through the Taiwanese version of Coupang's mobile app, consumers in Taiwan can use the company’s ultrafast Rocket Delivery service. Customers can order millions of groceries, daily necessities and other products from South Korea, and receive them i

Philip Morris Korea on Tuesday launched Iqos Iluma, its new flagship heated tobacco product that requires no cleaning process, saying it hopes to enhance customer experience. “Our new heat-not-burn cigarette uses smart core induction technology that doesn’t require heating blades like previous models. Since the tobacco sticks are not inserted into the blades, you don’t have to clean the ashes caught in the blades and there is no risk of damaging them,” said Baek Young-jae

Global wine and spirits company Pernod Ricard’s luxury wine collection Maison Mumm RSRV made its South Korean debut recently to cater to an ever-evolving, pandemic-fueled drinking culture here: drinking less, but better. “During at-home drinking occasions with a small group of people, you don’t have the social pressure of picking alcohol that is suitable for the moment. It was very interesting to see how people switch from drinking soju and beer -- the rule you must follow when

Heo Young-in, CEO of South Korean bakery giant SPC Group, bowed deep in apology Friday over a young factory worker killed in an accident at one of the company's bread-making factories last week. “I feel strongly responsible for this accident and accept criticism from the public without any excuses. I also send my deepest apology for not caring for the grief and shock of the employees who worked with the deceased,” Heo said during a press conference. As part of prevention measures, He

Virtual humans, or digital representations of human beings, have already started to take over human jobs, and are now on their way to strengthen their presence in the virtual world, according to Locus-X CEO Baek Seung-yeop. “In the early stages of virtual humans, they tried to be more ‘human-like.’ But now, they aim to go ‘beyond human’ and show great potential in the virtual world,” said Baek during his speech at The Korea Herald Biz Forum 2022 held at the

SMEs and Startups Minister Lee Young said on Tuesday that it plans to nurture Comeup, the ministry's startup accelerator program, as one of the top five startup events globally in five years. “Ramping up engagement from private sectors, we plan to place Comeup as the world’s fifth largest startup event in five years,” said Lee during a press conference at Maru 100 in southern Seoul. Lee added the government will make room for startup companies to enter global markets more

A day has passed since Kakao Corp., the operator of the immensely popular messenger app KakaoTalk, suffered its worst server outage due to a fire at its data center, but there was no complete recovery in sight as of midday Sunday. “The Pangyo data center is our main data facility that operates around 32,000 servers, but only one third of them – 12,000 servers – have been restored,” Yang Hyun-seo, a Kakao vice president, said during a press conference held in the afternoon

  South Koreans bought $600 million worth of real estate overseas last year mostly for investment purposes, a report showed Thursday. The transaction volume of foreign real estate bought by Koreans surged on-year by 53.8 percent to $600 million, according to a report from the Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Jin Sum-mi. The report, which was based on data from the Finance Ministry and National Tax Service, said individuals bought 2,404 properties, while companies purchased 51 in the cited per

Christopher Koo, chairman of the Korea International Trade Association, has called for the US to allow at least a three-year delay in implementing a US bill on tax benefits for electric vehicles that is highly disadvantageous for Korean carmakers exporting EVs there. Koo met with US Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia on Tuesday (US time) to deliver KITA's position on the matter. KITA, one of the largest trade lobbies in Korea, represents some 2,000 firms. “Koo asked the senator to consider dela

A study has found that heated tobacco product Glo contained less toxicants than traditional cigarettes, and could help reduce potential harm of smoking-related diseases, the Seoul branch of its manufacturer BAT Group said Tuesday. “Our recent one-year clinical trial found that our flagship heated tobacco product Glo showed 90-95 percent less toxicants contained in aerosol compared to cigarette smoke,” said Sharon Goodall, head of Regulatory Science at BAT Group, during a press conf

With the Korean won falling sharply against the US dollar, cross-border shopping on US platforms has become less attractive to Korean shoppers in a peak season that includes Black Friday in the US, sources said Monday. According to Statistics Korea data, transaction volume of cross-border shopping from the country to the US increased on-year by a mere 6.4 percent to 512.3 billion won ($358.9 million) in second quarter. Last year, the figure had spiked 25.7 percent compared to 2020. Noting that l

Korean duty-free shops, hit hard by protracted COVID-19 lockdowns in China, are seeking to reduce their reliance on Chinese sales, turning their eyes to alternative markets like Southeast Asia. Before the pandemic, China’s deep-pocketed tourists and resellers used to be their key revenue sources that made up more than 80 percent of their sales. With the resumption of international travel around the world, local retailers, especially the top two Lotte and Shinsegae, had pinned high hopes

Hanwha Galleria, the retail arm of Hanwha Solutions, will open the first branch of US fast food chain Five Guys in Seoul early next year, the company said Thursday, a day after its executive publicized it through his personal social media account. On Wednesday, Kim Dong-sun, head of strategic management at Hanwha Galleria, uploaded a photo of himself on Instagram shaking hands with William Peecher, director of international expansion at Five Guys Enterprise, with a hashtag that translates to &ld

Hyundai Department Store said Wednesday it would compensate staff and partner companies suffering from a business void at Daejeon Hyundai Premium Outlet that caught fire last week that left seven deaths. The company will give 2.5 million won-3.5 million won ($1,760-$2,470) to around 1,000 managers and salespeople whose work has been suspended due to the post-fire shutdown. Refusing to disclose the exact number of staff and managers, a Hyundai Department Store official said “we will come up

  As time spent at home increased during the coronavirus pandemic, domestic sales of Korean instant noodles surged to 1.3 trillion won ($917 million) as of August, data showed Wednesday. According to data from market tracker Nielsen IQ Korea, combined sales of four local ramen makers -- Nongshim, Samyang, Ottogi and Paldo -- jumped 4.6 percent from last year’s 1.2 trillion won between January and August. In terms of market share, Nongshim sat atop with 55.7 percent, followed by Ottogi

  As Korea transitions to the endemic stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, the online-focused retail industry is shifting toward offline stores to enhance customer experience, a report showed Tuesday. Although the vacancy rate rose in commercial districts during the pandemic, retail brands are eyeing prime spaces to open pop-up or flagship stores, according to a report from commercial real estate platform Cushman & Wakefield Korea. For instance, Apple opened its second store in a new buildin

South Korean grandparents gifted their grandchildren aged one or under around 99.1 billion won ($68.8 million) last year, a recent report showed Monday. According to a report based on data from the National Tax Service, the total amount of financial gifts transferred to children up to a year old from their grandparents last year jumped approximately threefold compared to 2020. The case where grandparents who gift financial assets to grandchildren, those who are more than one generation below tha