South Korea's top retailers have been developing their online platforms as the nation's ecommerce sales have seen continued strong growth. Online purchases reached $94.2 billion in the ten months from January to October 2019, up 35% year-on-year. (Statistics Korea). Department stores in particular are seeing an opportunity to leveage their comprehensive merchandise assortments - and turn what some might see as a liability into an asset. Korea has long been a shopping haven for Chinese consumers, especially the duty-free sector. With the development of these ecommerce platforms, retailers such as Lotte and Shinsegae are positioning themselves to be key players in crossborder ecommerce - a wise long term strategy. The industry leader Lotte Shopping is launching a comprehensive online app called Lotte ON in April that combines its seven online channels, including department store, supermarket, homeshopping and drugstore. The most powerful feature of the new app is an AI-powered shopping service that analyzes the purchase data of Lotte’s 39 million customers to make personalized recommendations, the company said. <h3><strong>What Platforms Are Doing</strong></h3> <strong>Lotte Shopping</strong> will follow other ecommerce rivals by operating an open market platform where individuals and businesses can freely trade their goods, which would significantly broaden its shopping list and draw more customers. The retailer currently holds 3.4 million storekeeping units on its online channel Lotte.com. It expects this to jump to 20 million on Lotte ON. <strong>SSG.com</strong>, the group online mall of Shinsegae Department Store and E-Mart, plans to add another logistics center and bolster its online offerings to achieve sales of 3.6 trillion won ($2.96 billion) in sales this year, which would gain 25 percent from 2019. <strong>Hyundai Department Store Group</strong> has its online department store mall, thehyundai.com. Its apparel brand Handsome was the first in the industry to introduce a home-fitting service that allows customers to try on clothes at home before making a purchase.