Homeplus opens world's first virtual store in Seoul

SEOUL, Aug. 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's No. 2 discount chain Homeplus Co. said Thursday it launched the world's first virtual store in a subway station in southern Seoul, allowing busy customers to buy products without visiting actual outlets.
The local unit of British retail giant Tesco Plc. said smartphone owners can buy products by just scanning photographs of items displayed on screen doors and pillars within the Seonreung Station in Yeoksam-dong.
The selected products are then put in customers' on-line carts, where they can pay for their purchases on-line and have the products delivered to their homes, Homeplus said.
The number of smartphone users in South Korea, one of the world's most-wired nations, stood at 15 million in July, according to government data.
Homeplus will display about 500 products, mostly fresh food, household items and leisure goods including the best selling items in the United Kingdom, and will gradually add more items, it said.
Homeplus is targeting 12.1 trillion won (US$10.8 billion) in sales this year, up 11 percent from a year earlier.
elly@yna.co.kr