As artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly recommends and purchases products on behalf of consumers, logistics is shifting from back-end support to a "frontline competitive edge."
Analysts say logistics is moving beyond its role of handling delivery after an order to become a factor where real-time inventory and stability in fulfillment and delivery determine product exposure and sales performance.
On the 28th, according to the startup industry, Twohands, which operates the fulfillment service "Poomgo" that handles product storage, packaging, fulfillment, and delivery on behalf of sellers, opened the modular automated logistics hub "XFC Center" in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. It automated the packaging stage, which requires a lot of labor, and developed its warehouse management system (WMS) and warehouse control system (WCS) completely in-house. It also built a system that can respond in real time to changes in cargo volume.
Increased investment in logistics is tied to changes in shopping behavior. In the past, consumers searched directly and compared prices and reviews to choose products, but recently a trend has emerged in which AI not only recommends products based on a user's preferences and purchase history but also becomes involved in the purchasing process.
Amazon said more than 250 million people used its AI shopping assistant "Rufus" this year. In Korea, Naver is strengthening product comparisons and personalized recommendations by applying AI-based shopping recommendation features to Naver Plus Store. Kakao plans to link KakaoTalk with its gifting service to create a structure that connects product recommendations during chats all the way through payment.
The market expects that as AI becomes more deeply involved in the shopping process, the importance of logistics competitiveness—such as inventory availability, fulfillment speed, and delivery stability—will grow.
If AI reflects logistics data in purchase decisions, the level of logistics infrastructure could emerge as a variable that determines sales performance.
There is also an outlook that, beyond competition centered on ad exposure and marketing, the competitiveness of a company's own mall, equipped with structured product data and delivery reliability, could come to the fore.
As the consumption and delivery ecosystem hits an inflection point, competition to build AI-based logistics platforms is also continuing. WeKeep has built demand forecasting functions and an automatic inbound request system with its self-developed AI-based solution. PASTO has likewise upgraded its operating system with AI to strengthen logistics capabilities through automatic fulfillment and inventory management.
Poomgo CEO Park Chan-jae said, "In e-commerce logistics, fast speed is taken for granted," and added, "Companies that proactively establish efficient operating methods and AI-based infrastructure, as well as reduce logistics costs, amid rapidly changing market conditions will lead the industry."
Because AI has not yet reached the stage of using inventory and delivery data as an actual basis for purchase decisions, some urge caution.
An industry official said, "Currently, many AI shopping services focus on product recommendations and search assistance," and noted, "It remains to be tested whether logistics data will have as much influence as price or brand recognition by the time consumers make their final purchase decisions."