AI-powered tools drive retail sales boost amid sluggish consumption

(CU)

South Korean retailers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to enhance customer experience and drive sales as the domestic consumption slump drags on.

Lotte Mart said Sunday that its newly launched shopping assistant app “Lotte Mart Zetta” is showing promising results. Released in April 2025, the app uses AI to analyze each customer’s purchase history and frequency, then automatically fills their shopping cart with recommended items. The app had logged over 900,000 downloads as of June 15th, nearing the 1 million mark, with sales via the app rising by about five percent from June 1st to 17th compared to the same period in May. Lotte Mart said that new customers now account for more than double the previous average and said it plans to improve the app’s features even further.

Homeplus is also seeing results from AI integration after introducing a feature that summarizes product reviews using AI to help customers quickly understand feedback in May. According to the company, customers who used the review summary tool between May 29th and June 8th had a cart conversion rate twice as high as the overall customer average.

For its part, convenience store chain CU introduced an AI-powered translation service in March - the first in the industry to do so - to assist foreign customers in 38 languages. Employees use a digital device that generates a QR code, customers scan it and speak into their phones, and the spoken content is translated and displayed as text in a chat window. Since its implementation, CU reported a 32.3 percent increase in foreign payment transactions between March and May. Initially piloted in five locations, the service is now available in 62 stores.

Shinsegae Department Store is also exploring AI-based personalization. It partnered with the Seoul National University Graduate School of Data Science in January to upgrade its shopping recommendation engine into “S-Mind 4.0,” a hyper-personalized platform.