South Korea’s retail conglomerate Lotte Group is ratcheting up efforts to promote its own mobile payment platform, L Pay, industry watchers said Wednesday, as such services gained popularity over previous months amid the rising number of smartphone users.
Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin was recently quoted as saying by corporate officials that L Pay is an “important asset” for the business group, adding that Lotte should expand the scope and quality of the services provided by the L Pay platform.
Shin also highlighted the importance of expanding business partnerships to garner a larger slice of users in the market.
The business group has been making efforts to establish “omnichannel” solutions, which refer to bringing together online and offline shopping platforms.
L Pay is significant as it allows users to manage their mileage at shops and restaurants operated by Lotte Group, including Lotte Cinema, 7-Eleven and Lotte Department Store.
The service has been forging ties with eight South Korean credit card firms and is also in talks with Samsung Electronics Co. to have L Pay applied to Samsung Pay.