'ChatGPT recommended it' — Lotte Department Store targets foreign tourists with AI marketing

Lotte Department Store announced Wednesday it will launch a phased, customized marketing strategy to help foreign tourists access shopping information through generative AI.

The first initiative is a "generative AI search optimization" campaign aimed at making Lotte-related content more visible on platforms such as ChatGPT and Gemini. The retailer will optimize its content so that when generative AI tools recommend travel or shopping destinations, Lotte Department Store appears naturally in the results. The strategy is designed to reach foreign customers at the earliest stage of trip planning.

For tourists already in the country, Lotte Department Store will run out-of-home advertising in partnership with Daehong Communications, using AI search as a new customer acquisition channel. Ads prompting generative AI searches will appear at key tourist hubs, including Incheon International Airport and the Seongsu and Hongdae neighborhoods of Seoul.

The store added multilingual support to Dustin, its AI shopping chatbot on the mobile app, in April. The chatbot handles English, Japanese, and Chinese — both simplified and traditional — and guides foreign customers in their own language on store information as well as nearby shopping and tourism routes.

Meanwhile, the way tourists search for travel information is shifting from conventional portal searches toward conversations with generative AI. A report released in March by global travel market research firm Phocuswright found that 56 percent of global travelers had used generative AI at least once when planning a trip. Among Generation Z, that figure reached 72 percent.

"As generative AI spreads, the way people search for travel information is changing rapidly, so Lotte Department Store is proactively adopting marketing strategies that match the new behavior patterns of foreign customers," said Park Sang-woo, head of the marketing division at Lotte Department Store.