Starting next year, consumers will be able to shop for Emart products through conversations with ChatGPT, as Shinsegae Group has joined hands with OpenAI.
The partnership marks the official opening of the artificial intelligence (AI) commerce era in South Korea. Shinsegae Group has further solidified its AI-driven future business portfolio, following its announcement last month of plans to build the country's largest AI data center.
Shinsegae Group said on the 6th that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with OpenAI for "AI commerce business cooperation" at The Westin Josun Seoul in Sogong-dong, Seoul. This is the first time OpenAI has established a partnership with a Korean retailer to enter the AI commerce business.
Through the partnership, the two sides plan to commercialize an "end-to-end AI commerce" model by 2027 that enables users to search all Emart products, make payments and arrange deliveries through ChatGPT conversations. Ahead of that, an AI shopping agent powered by ChatGPT will be introduced on the Emart app within this year.
Shinsegae Group plans to expand AI commerce starting with Emart and extending to SSG.com and Starbucks. The group calculates that its broad customer touchpoints across online and offline food and beverage sectors position it to capture various markets through AI commerce.
The group also plans to cooperate with OpenAI on its broader AX (AI transformation) initiative. Walmart in the United States is known to be leading the AI commerce market through active collaboration with OpenAI, strengthening customer communication channels and innovating the customer experience using AI.
Shinsegae Group stressed regarding the strategic partnership with OpenAI, "We will gradually expand AI commerce across the entire group, starting with Emart." The message makes clear that the top priority of the partnership is to strengthen competitiveness in the group's core retail business and lead the AI commerce market.
Industry observers are evaluating the Shinsegae-OpenAI partnership as a major turning point for Korea's AI commerce market. Currently, global AI platforms such as Gemini and ChatGPT do not offer services in Korea that allow users to search for products, purchase and arrange delivery through direct conversation. Individual retailers including Naver and Lotte On are at the stage of implementing AI shopping agents through their own apps. In contrast, OpenAI entered the AI commerce market in earnest in the United States last year by launching a shopping assistant service.
The reason AI platform-based commerce has not yet reached commercialization in Korea is the absence of retail partners. "Gemini and ChatGPT do not have their own delivery systems or product inventories, so retail partners with payment and delivery infrastructure are essential," an industry official said. "Partners that are trustworthy and not simply open marketplaces are ultimately limited to major retailers."
The partnership is the result of converging interests between Shinsegae, which is preparing for future business, and OpenAI, which aims to enter Korea's AI commerce market. "AI commerce will define the 'new normal' of the future retail market, transcending the dichotomy between online and offline distribution," said Lim Young-rok, head of Shinsegae Group's corporate strategy office.
In particular, Shinsegae and OpenAI plan to introduce an "end-to-end" AI commerce model that goes a step further than what exists in the United States. "Unlike Walmart, which has not yet reached the point of completing payments within the ChatGPT conversation window, we will build an end-to-end AI commerce model that covers the entire shopping process — from search to payment and delivery — for all products," a Shinsegae Group official said.
The intensified push into AI business is seen as the materialization of the future business strategy that Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin has emphasized for years. At a previous signing ceremony with Reflection AI, Chairman Chung stressed, "AI will comprehensively transform all areas including future industries, the economy and human life, making survival impossible for future industries without AI."
