Fashion
Shinsegae Department Store is set to launch a new smartphone app that offers online and offline shoppers e-receipts with extras.
While the electronic receipt app avoids the hassle of scraps of paper receipts, it can also provide discount coupons and make it easier for customers to park cars.
Scheduled to launch on Friday, the retailer said the app will help it engage with customers and potentially learn consumer shopping habits from the digital records, and make exchanges or returns easier.
Retailers outside of Korea have already adopted e-receipts, but local shops have been slow to utilize the system.
Global marketing company Epsilon International said the e-receipt is “an innovative communications vehicle for retailers that offer limitless marketing possibilities, providing deeper insight into consumer shopping habits, which can lead to more targeted advertising mailers, promotions and emails.”
On top of offering e-receipts, the platform will provide information about different sales events and discount coupons, the department store chain said.
The Shinsegae app will also help the store’s parking service. If a customer registers a car number, they can check the length of time they have spent in the parking lot.
In the Gangnam and Incheon branch, customers can confirm their parking locations on the app and also get their parking ticket validated for free parking.
The company said that users are allowed to log in with cell phone numbers instead of having to create IDs and passwords.
Starting in September, users of the app can also receive a list of bestselling products. In addition to the new features – an upgrade to the old app which gave basic store information – Shinsegae said it will add other services to the platform.
The retailer also unveiled a pickup service that allows online users to pick up their orders at Shinsegae Department Store.
The new service is part of “omni-channel retailing” which is used by retail giant Amazon, which is a marketing strategy aimed at bridging the gap between online and offline stores.
“The boundary between online and offline shopping is getting blurry,” said Hong Jeong-pyo, director at the marketing strategy division at Shinsegae. “Shinsegae launched the services that combine the advantages of online and offline shopping.”
The release is the latest digital service offered by Shinsegae. The group introduced a new mobile payment system called SSG Pay, where consumers can pay with the app at Shinsegae affiliates, including Shinsegae Department Store and E-Mart, WithMe convenience stores, Starbucks, Premium Outlet and SSG.com.
