Lotte overhauls customer benefits, shutting point mall and paid membership

Lotte is winding down its paid shopping membership Lotte Owners and its point mall Nalmada Gage in quick succession, replacing them with new memberships and affiliate-linked services as it restructures its customer benefits program.

According to the retail industry, Lotte Members will shut down Nalmada Gage — an L.Point point mall — on Nov. 29, about nine years after its 2017 launch. Nalmada Gage was a point mall built into the L.Point app, where members could use accumulated L.Points to purchase food, household goods, electronics, fashion accessories and more.

In place of Nalmada Gage, Lotte Members is preparing a new shopping service. The plan is to continue offering shopping through the L.Point app while strengthening its function of directing customers to Lotte affiliates. "Nalmada Gage will be revamped to reinforce the L.Point app's role in channeling customers to group affiliates and to maximize synergies across subsidiaries," a Lotte Members official said.

To strengthen its role as an integrated hub connecting customers to affiliates, Lotte Members relaunched its app in March. It also added a new "Membership Tab" consolidating benefits from Lotte affiliates and partner companies. The tab features a coupon store selling mobile gift vouchers and product exchange certificates by brand at a discount, as well as Lotte Check-in, a service designed to drive visits and payments at physical Lotte stores.

Lotte Owners, Lotte's paid shopping membership launched in 2019, is also being phased out. New monthly-plan sign-ups will be suspended starting Saturday, and new annual-plan sign-ups will stop from Dec. 31. The service will shut down entirely on Dec. 31, 2027.

Lotte Owners was a paid membership operated by Lotte On, the e-commerce platform of Lotte Shopping. For 2,900 won a month, members received free-delivery coupons and L.Point rewards when shopping at Lotte-affiliated online stores including Lotte Department Store, Lotte Mart and Lotte Super.

In September, Lotte On launched a new membership called Next Membership to replace the outgoing program. The new scheme is free to join and provides benefits based on purchase performance. Members are assigned one of four tiers — Family, Select, Prime and Black — according to the number and value of purchases made over the preceding four months. Paying with L.Pay earns up to an additional 5 percent in points, depending on the member's tier and the eligible purchase amount.

An analysis of Next Membership's performance showed that new members spent on average 150 percent more per person than Lotte Owners members had. The average number of purchases per person rose 127 percent, and the average transaction value rose 10 percent. "Going forward, we will work to further strengthen customer benefits through new memberships such as Next Membership," a Lotte On official said.

Lotte Shopping earlier unveiled a membership for shareholders, aimed at delivering tangible benefits to investors and enhancing shareholder value. The shareholder-exclusive membership L Honor's Club, which took effect Sunday, operates on the basis of L.Point, Lotte Group's integrated membership program. It offers tiered benefits — including discount coupons and point rewards — based on the size and duration of a member's Lotte Shopping shareholding.

Shareholders holding at least one share of Lotte Shopping receive discount coupons redeemable at Lotte Department Store, Lotte Mart, Lotte Super and Lotte On, along with point rewards based on purchase performance. Those holding 1,000 or more shares for at least one year receive additional perks such as access to department store lounges and valet parking.

Meanwhile, at the Lotte Marketing Conference held in September, Lotte Members emphasized the importance of expanding Lotte's economic ecosystem through integrated group marketing built around L.Point and L.Pay. Joint marketing campaigns across affiliates and enhanced data support were among the initiatives proposed as ways to drive that expansion.