[LG Electronics]
From December 29, LG Electronics said the number of unmanned stores will increase from nine to 19. The company would increase the number of unmanned stores to 30 by the end of June 2022. "More and more customers prefer untact experiences due to COVID-19," Oh Seung-jin, an LG Electronics official in charge of domestic markets, said in a statement on December 29.
In May 2021, LG Electronics opened nine unmanned stores in four cities for the first time among domestic home appliance companies. About 70 percent of 6,000 people who have visited unmanned stores in six months are in their 20s and 30s. According to a survey of visitors, more than 80 percent showed high satisfaction, saying they would visit unmanned stores again.
Many unmanned stores in South Korea require customers to scan the barcodes of products they wish to buy and make payments using a credit card or a digital payment method. LG Uplus (LGU+), a mobile carrier in South Korea, has opened its first unmanned store in Seoul, based on simple authentication and payment. Customers can use services by issuing QR codes and authenticating themselves with fingerprints and passwords.
In December 2021, the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), a state internet watchdog, opened an unmanned convenience store at its headquarters in the southern city of Naju to collect and share shopping data with security companies for the development of new smart store-related technologies.
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