CJ OnStyle will combine home shopping and mobile

Huh Min-ho, CEO at CJ OnStyle, speaks at a virtual press event held on Wednesday to announce the launch of the new CJ OnStyle brand. [CJ ENM]

CJ ENM launched a new shopping brand that integrates television and mobile shopping.

The brand name is CJ OnStyle, and it will replace CJ O Shopping, which runs home and online shopping on CJ Mall and T-Commerce through CJ O Shopping Plus.

T-Commerce is buying products directly on television.

The three businesses are being combined into CJ OnStyle, which will launch on May 10.

The word ‘on’ in the name refers to turning on people’s style in fashion, beauty and living.

The new brand will curate products for customers with different tastes, according to the company.

The goal is to “eliminate the boundary of television and mobile” and to “pioneer a new market beyond television home shopping, which has reached a mature phase.”

Plans include expanding live commerce services, a term for home shopping services provided on a mobile phone.

The company says it has strengths in integrating shopping platforms because of its experience in television home shopping.

“Unlike most live commerce operators, we have show hosts,” said CJ O Shopping on Wednesday. “They have raised the credibility of home shopping. Depending on who sells products, credibility is established.”

The company said that it already has an infrastructure for live commerce.

“In line with the changing media environment, where a boundary between mobile and television disappears, [we] plan on shifting the paradigm to a mobile first strategy,” said Huh Min-ho, CEO of CJ OnStyle, at a virtual press event held on Wednesday.

“By 2023, total transactions made on mobile will stand around 3 trillion won ($2.7 billion) and will account for more than 60 percent of total sales.”

Online transactions made on CJ O Shopping last year were around 1.96 trillion won.

The primary targets of CJ OnStyle are consumers aged between 35 and 54, who are mothers of millennials that were born between 1980 through 2000.

The target customers are comfortable with shopping in a digital environment, and actively use online-to-offline shopping practices, meaning they buy the lowest priced products online after shopping at a real store.

The company plans to strengthen its curation service too.

“The existing retail paradigm has long become a red ocean where cut-throat competition is inevitable based on price and delivery speed,” said the company. “CJ OnStyle will develop a new market in an age when television home shopping has reached a mature stage.”

People shopping on the platform will be exposed to a feed that best suits their interests and will be given discount coupons. Next day delivery will also be available.

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