A pilot version of Lotte Homeshopping's metaverse service shows camping items on sale prior to its launch next year. Courtesy of Lotte Homeshopping

By Kim Jae-heun

One of the country's top home-shopping firms, Lotte Homeshopping, is preparing to introduce its own metaverse platform in 2023, for selling real products utilizing non-fungible token (NFT) and running live-commerce services.

"As metaverse and NFTs have emerged as new business growth engines for companies around the world, we have concluded a business agreement with local firms with the best professional technologies and research skills in the sector," a Lotte Homeshopping official said.

The home-shopping company signed a business partnership with 13 information and communication technology (ICT) firms on Wednesday. They included experts in the artificial intelligence, virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), blockchain, NFTs, content and cloud computing sectors.

The contract paper was issued with NFT, given the symbolism of its metaverse service. Lotte will further establish a consultative body with the 13 firms and attract more participants to create synergy between them in the near future.

Lotte Homeshopping's metaverse platform will have a NFT marketplace, live commerce studio and online communities for users to participate.

The NFT business is the first step, for which the firm plans to launch an NFT marketplace on its mobile application starting in April. Lotte will sell its "Belly Gom" NFT products for which it has intellectual property rights. Belly Gom is a pink-colored bear character created by the retailer.

In the same month, Lotte will open its "meta-live studio," where an avatar will host a live commerce service in the 3D virtual space created on a mobile app. Customers can join to experience a futuristic style of shopping. Apart from this, Lotte will offer XR-based content during its large-scale shopping festival in October.

In the same month, the company plans to recruit personnel for the metaverse service and establish an exhibition hall targeting small and medium-sized companies to promote their online export consultation services.

"In the future, we plan to speed up digital transformation by promoting our metaverse service based on advanced technologies beyond blockchain, VR and digital human development," a Lotte Homeshopping official said.