Smart Retail in Seoul

Seoul, which attaches great importance to technological innovation, is also developing rapidly in smart retail. The NFC-based mobile payment system has been developed in partnership between the public and private sectors and can be accessed by any user with a smart device and a mobile card. People pay for their transactions by holding their smartphones up to a special card reader, which can capture key information about the transaction. The service also supports money transfers from one smart device to another. The privately developed HomePlus app allows transactions on the HomePlus virtual store (found on street billboards, where each item has a barcode) (see bottom right). Consumers can purchase items en route and receive them at home later in the day. The first HomePlus virtual store opened in August 2011.

When you come to Seoul, if you want to take the subway, stepping on the platform of the Seolleung subway station in the south of Seoul, you will feel like walking into a modern supermarket. There are rows of display cabinets with daily necessities. There are so many people on the subway platform, how to place the display cabinets of department stores. Don't get me wrong, this is not your usual supermarket. This is a virtual supermarket, where the display cases and items are just brightly colored pictures. On the square pillars of the waiting area of the subway platform, and on the glass screen door separating the subway track and the waiting area, there are more than 500 patterns of daily necessities, including milk, apples, Baozhuang rice and schoolbags, etc. In addition to food, there are also useful products, including electronic products, office supplies and cosmetics, etc. There are commodity barcodes on the pattern of each commodity.

If you want to buy something, you just need to pick up your smartphone, and of course you need to download the relevant application software beforehand, and you can order the goods by taking a photo of the barcode. Passengers order goods on the way to work, and when they get home at night, the goods have been delivered.