Tesco Opens Worlds First Virtual Store in South Korea

I heard about shopping in virtual store last year. The idea is great. People can buy groceries while they are waiting for subway at the station. You can simply use your smart phone scan the code shows on the screen. It will ship it to your home at the time you request. At that time, I didn't really pay attention, and I thought it just an concept. Now it comes true.  For me, I will stick shopping at the real store. I like to see the real products, especially for meat. 

Read this article from Archello.com 

Tesco Homeplus in South Korea is opening the world’s first virtual store today in the Seoul subway to help time-pressed commuters shop on the go using their smartphones.

The walls of the Seonreung subway station in downtown Seoul came to life today with virtual displays of over 500 of the most popular products with barcodes which customers can scan using the Homeplus app on their smartphones and get delivered right to their doorstep.

The beauty of the idea is that busy commuters can scan their groceries on their way to work in the morning and, as long as their order is placed before 13.00, their items will be delivered home that same evening, creating even greater speed and convenience in the whole shopping experience.

DW Seol, Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Tesco Homeplus, said: “I am extremely proud of the great work the Tesco Homeplus team have done to launch this idea in the Seoul subway. We are always looking to make the shopping experience easier and more convenient for our customers and the introduction of the virtual store is a great achievement. This is a real triumph for the Korean retailing industry as it continues to be at the forefront of technological innovation.” 

The displays, which include a range of different daily items from milk and apples to pet food and stationery, will be placed on the pillars and the screen doors at the subway station. Commuters can then scan the QR code beneath the desired item via the Homeplus app on their smartphone and the item will then be delivered direct to the customer’s home at a time of their choosing.

Tesco Homeplus is actually owned by Tesco and Samsung. It is the second largest discount retail chain in South Korea. Back in 2008, the Homeplus CEO Lee Seung-han had the vision of starting virtual store at Seol leung station. He chose this location because over 200,000 commuters use it every day. Also, he foresaw the number of smartphone users is expected to skyrocket and noticed that the smart phones usually use at subway and bus stations. The virtual store works under a "order-and-delivery" model. Delivery time is flexible based on the customers' requests.