Retailers tout same-day delivery

Retailers are beefing up their same-day deliveries, promising shoppers more convenience than their competitors.

Homeplus on Tuesday announced it is expanding same-day delivery services in Seoul to customers of The Club, an online mall that combines the discounts of warehouse retailers with a conventional grocery store experience.

The retail giant had been offering same-day delivery in four selected regions where Homeplus Special stores are located. The company said it will expand same-day delivery beyond Seoul in the future.

Customers will be able to receive packages sent from Homeplus Special stores on the same day if they place orders before 4 p.m.

On Sunday, Lotte Mart said it will extend the hours of its same-day deliveries.

Lotte Mart had offered same-day deliveries to customers who placed orders before 4 p.m. The retail giant extended the deadline to 6:30 p.m. in June and on Sunday extended it to 8 p.m. Consumers can get packages delivered by midnight.

Lotte said it expects around 700 additional orders daily following the extension.

“Strengthening same-day delivery not only raises consumer convenience but is also an environmentally-friendly delivery approach that could reduce the use of packages,” said a spokesperson for Lotte.

Industry analysts say same-day deliveries are a good way to create buzz without much additional expense.

“Extending the hours for receiving last orders for same-day delivery is part of the retailers’ efforts to get viral attention at a low cost and without offering much additional value to customers,” said analyst Lee Jin-hyeop from Yuanta Securities Korea.

According to an industry insider, same-day deliveries aren’t very expensive for retailers that operate distribution centers, unlike dawn-delivery services, which are much more expensive than average delivery services because of the overtime paid to delivery workers.

“As for Lotte, it will only offer products from its distribution center in Gimpo, [Gyeonggi],” said Lee, “which means the number of products available for the same-day delivery will be limited.”

Lotte’s Gimpo distribution center deals with around 20,000 types of goods, far fewer than the 50,000 products handled at SSG.com’s distribution center, the Next Generation Online Store, in Gimpo.

Homeplus said Homeplus Special deals with 1,800 exclusive products in addition to some of the 23,000 products offered at Homeplus stores.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]