Kakao (035720) will launch an online grocery shopping service with Lotte Mart on its platform by the end of this year.
Kakao announced on the 27th that it has signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Lotte Mart and Lotte Super to strengthen online grocery shopping competitiveness.
Through this MOU, the two companies will provide online mart shopping that combines fresh food offerings with delivery capabilities, and continue cooperation to expand their customer base and strengthen commerce competitiveness. The signing ceremony was attended by key executives from both companies, including Kakao CEO Shina Chung and Lotte Mart & Super CEO Woochul Cha. The two sides discussed the direction of cooperation for online grocery shopping services, scope of roles, and future business plans.
Through this partnership, Kakao will further strengthen the grocery shopping competitiveness of Kakao Shopping. Lotte Mart products will be regularly featured on major commerce platforms including the KakaoTalk Shopping tab and TalkDeal, enhancing user convenience so customers can easily complete grocery shopping within KakaoTalk. The company will expand its product portfolio centered on daily consumption items, including fresh foods such as fruits, vegetables, meat, and seafood that have high grocery shopping demand, as well as refrigerated and frozen foods and daily necessities. This will provide users with a daily shopping experience they can naturally use in their everyday lives. Kakao expects this to attract new customers and strengthen its commerce competitiveness.
Lotte Mart is advancing its online grocery shopping service capabilities centered on the Zeta Smart Center, which was built based on its partnership with Ocado. With the opening of the Zeta Smart Center in the Busan region this year, the company will begin dawn delivery and ultra-fast delivery services in the Busan and South Gyeongsang regions, then expand service coverage to the Seoul metropolitan area to strengthen its foundation for growth in the online grocery market. This will establish a foundation for more stable provision of various grocery product categories including fresh foods and refrigerated and frozen items. The company plans to expand differentiated customer services through collaboration with the high-traffic Kakao platform.
The two companies will also pursue online-offline integrated cooperation measures, including driving offline store visits through KakaoTalk channels, providing benefits to members of both companies, and selling mart-exclusive private brand products. Through this, both companies plan to gradually develop a cooperative model for online mart shopping that combines products, delivery, and customer experience.
"By adding Kakao's convenience to the fresh food competitiveness that Lotte Mart has built, we will become a 'grocery shopping companion' that accompanies customers in their daily lives and create a new standard for online grocery shopping," said Woochul Cha, CEO of Lotte Mart & Super. "Going forward, Lotte Mart will create an integrated shopping environment that customers can use most conveniently without boundaries between online and offline through our grocery capabilities and cooperation with various partners, and become a leader in the grocery market."
"This partnership will be an important opportunity to expand the KakaoTalk-based commerce experience into the everyday grocery shopping domain, including fresh foods and daily necessities," said Shina Chung, CEO of Kakao. "We will continue to strengthen our delivery and product competitiveness so that users can receive the products they need in their daily lives faster and more conveniently, and expand Kakao's commerce ecosystem through collaboration with various partners."