Ocado Solutions and Lotte Shopping agree online grocery shopping tie up
Ocado Solutions and Lotte Shopping have announced a partnership to develop the latter’s online business in South Korea with the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP).
The pair will develop a network of customer fulfilment centres (CFCs) across the market, underpinned by the end-to-end capabilities of the OSP. Ocado's in-store fulfilment (ISF) solution will also be rolled out across Lotte's store estate.
The agreement involves the development of a nationwide fulfilment network, with six CFCs planned by 2028. The aim is to implement ISF in 2024, with the first CFC due to go live in 2025.
The tie up will also bring new technologies announced at Ocado Re:Imagined to Lotte's operations, and it will introduce multi-storey CFCs for the first time.
Lotte will pay Ocado Solutions certain fees upfront and during the development phase, then ongoing fees linked to both sales achieved and installed capacity within the CFC and service criteria.
The partnership is exclusive in South Korea on the basis of Lotte ordering an agreed schedule of CFC capacity and in the longer term meeting mutually agreed market share targets.
Kim Sang-hyun, CEO at Lotte Shopping, says: "This partnership with Ocado, one of the most innovative companies worldwide, will be a great opportunity for us to provide our customers with a new online grocery shopping experience.”
“Also I expect this will be the first step for us on the way not only to increasing our competitiveness and presence in the e-grocery market, but also to achieving the leading position in the overall grocery market in Korea."
Tim Steiner, CEO at Ocado Group, says: "This partnership brings the Ocado Smart Platform, the most advanced technology for serving online grocery, to one of the most mature e-commerce markets in the world.”
“I'm delighted to welcome Lotte to the innovative group of retailers developing their online operations with Ocado. With this new partnership, our unique, proprietary technology will now power the online businesses of twelve major retailers across ten countries worldwide."
Luke Jensen, CEO at Ocado Solutions, says: "South Korea is among the most developed and dynamic markets for grocery e-commerce in the world”
“ Lotte is a powerhouse grocery player in the market, with deep connections to its customers and the ambition to dominate the e-commerce channel in grocery. We can't wait to introduce a game changing proposition to Korean shoppers with Lotte.”
“This partnership also gives Ocado another important foothold in Asia Pacific as we target further growth across the region."
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