South Korea's online shopping sites compete over swift delivery

Platforms such as Naver and 11st are rolling out same-day delivery services.

Competition is heating up amongst South Korea’s major online shopping site operators to speed up their delivery services, and are looking for ways to provide same-day or next-day delivery services to customers, Korea Bizwire reported.

Internet portal operator Naver tied up with logistics giant CJ Logistics to diversify its delivery services, including "designated date delivery" and "today arrival service". The company’s new same-day delivery service enables customers to take delivery by the afternoon of the same day the order is placed if they place the order by 10:00 AM.

Naver and CJ Logistics also formulated a strategy to speed up delivery using a two-wheel vehicle delivery network. They also plan to maximise the processing volume using an artificial intelligence-based prediction method for customer demand and inventories.

Meanwhile, Shinsegae’s SSG.COM is looking for sites to establish additional logistics centers whilst leveraging the network it currently has in place for hypermarket chain E-mart.

In 110 of the 141 E-Mart outlets across the country, there are Picking & Packing Centers called PP Centers, where pickers search the store to find the items ordered online by customers. After putting the items in a shopping basket, they package them and send them directly to customers in the neighborhood, thereby reducing delivery time.

SSG.COM also plans to expand or set up new PP Centers in renovated E-Mart stores, with a goal of boosting the share of PP Centers in overall processing volume from the current 40%.

Meanwhile, leading online marketplace 11st teamed up with the state postal service Korea Post to launch a same-day delivery service. The Daejeon Post Logistics Center, operated by Korea Post, will provide a fulfillment service ranging from warehousing to storage, delivery, and inventory management.