Lotte, Hyundai Department Store, Coupang, and U.S. Amazon and China's JD.com, among other major domestic and overseas distribution corporations, jointly declared a "retail industry artificial intelligence (AI) transition." They said the retail industry must keep pace with the wave of innovation in the AI era and, through the "Gyeongju Declaration," urged cooperation and change in the future retail ecosystem.
At 2 p.m. on the 28th, the "Retail Future Tech Forum" was held at Wonhwa Hall in Gyeongju Arts Center as a side event of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Summit. The forum is part of six advanced technology tech forums that continued from the day before—shipbuilding, defense industry, retail, AI, virtual currency, and future energy. It was held under the theme "Innovation and the future of the global retail industry."
About 300 figures from government, corporations, and academia from Korea and abroad attended the event. From Korea, Lotte Shopping CEO Chung Joon-ho, Hyundai Department Store President Chung Ji-young, GS Retail CEO Hur Suh-hong, and Coupang CEO Park Dae-joon attended. From overseas, representatives from U.S. Amazon, China's JD.com, and other Asia-Pacific region retail corporations were present.
In a keynote speech, David Bell, former chaired professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, said that although online shopping is the mainstream, consumption is still completed in "space," and said that future stores will evolve not merely into places that sell goods but into "intelligent spaces" that analyze customer data to provide personalized services. He went on to say that the winners of the AI era are corporations that focus on data, personalization and customization, and experience, emphasizing that what is more important than technology is a data sense that understands consumers.
In the second session that followed, the head of Amazon's Asia-Pacific division and a vice president of JD.com attended and discussed the importance of "AI shopping." Kim Ho-min, Amazon's Asia-Pacific head, said that 92% of consumers who used AI shopping felt changes in convenience and satisfaction. Gong Xiangying, a vice president of JD.com, said that they are pursuing technological innovation that provides personalized shopping experiences such as AI marketing and search.
Park Il-joon, executive vice chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which hosted the forum, said that retail accounts for 8% of the world's gross domestic product (GDP), and said that amid changes in supply chains and the great AI transition, a new retail paradigm must be created.