South Korea’s leading home shopping operator GS Home Shopping Inc. will set up a new logistics center near the country’s capital Seoul with a population of more than 10 million at a cost of around 90 billion won ($80 million) to meet surging demand for mobile shopping on top of online and TV home shopping.

The company said on Tuesday, it has decided to invest about 90 billion won to build a new logistics center on a site of 40,121 square meters in Gunpo city, Gyeonggi Province with an aim to complete the construction by 2018.

Once it opens, the new center is expected to allow the company to further speed up shipping process and improve delivery services to shoppers across the country. The center will be managed by a smart management system that will enable cargo volume prediction and real-time inventory management through big data analysis.

Equipped with an automation system, the new center will be able to sort parcels almost automatically by reducing parcel movement routes to a minimum. Following the opening of the center, the company’s shipping volume is expected to increase from current 5,000 packages per hour and 90,000 packages per day to 15,000 per hour and 140,000 per day, respectively.

The enhanced efficiency in logistics management would allow GS Home Shopping customers to receive separate orders in one package that would be a delivery cost saver and customize packaging styles for each order.

The improvement in delivery speed would also be made possible thanks to the enhanced accessibility. As Gunpo city is just one hour away from Seoul, suppliers and delivery firms could save their transporting time by 36 percent and distance by 15 kilometers on average.

With the surging demand for mobile shopping, GS Home Shopping plans to make the new facility an integrated logistics center that handles all orders from TV home shopping, mobile and online shopping.

By Park Eun-jin

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]