Lotte Department Store first in industry to adopt RCS messaging

Lotte Department Store announced Tuesday it has become the first department store in the industry to introduce and operate a Rich Communication Services (RCS) system.

RCS is a next-generation messaging service that goes a step beyond conventional text messaging formats such as SMS, MMS and LMS. Messages display the verified company's official logo alongside sender information, and a brand profile feature lets recipients view detailed company information including the official website, ensuring a higher level of trustworthiness.

Lotte Department Store built the optimized RCS platform in collaboration with Lotte Innovate and KT Corp. The three partners jointly developed RCS-specific message templates tailored to Lotte Department Store, as well as a system infrastructure capable of reliably sending large volumes of messages.

Customers will be able to read text messages from Lotte Department Store without worrying about impersonation fraud or spam. The company said it intends to lead the industry in "worry-free shopping" through the RCS rollout.

Another advantage is that customers can engage in two-way, one-on-one communication through their smartphone's default messaging app without installing a separate application. The service also supports direct links to online pages and high-resolution image attachments, which is expected to improve the quality of information customers receive.

Lotte Department Store plans to deploy RCS across all customer touchpoints, including promotional announcements, coupon distribution, service notifications and event participation. The company is also exploring ways to analyze customer response data collected through RCS to support personalized marketing and membership-linked services.

"Adopting RCS allows us to strengthen Lotte Department Store's brand credibility through text messaging, the communication channel customers are most familiar with," said Choi Sung-cheol, head of the AI Studio division at Lotte Department Store. "We will continue to put customers first and drive proactive digital innovation."