SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) today announced that it will showcase a wide range of innovative next-generation commerce platforms at the Mobile World Congress 2015 held in Barcelona, Spain. Designed to make shopping more convenient and pleasant, these platforms will be displayed at the company’s booth (3J30), which has been created to offer a first-hand experience to visitors.

■  Smart Shopper, a commerce platform that realizes cartless shopping

SK Telecom will unveil Smart Shopper, which is an omni-channel platform built with barcode scanning and NFC technologies to enhance customers’ shopping experience at large retail stores.

To begin their shopping, customers will pick up a designated barcode scanning device instead of a bulky shopping cart. With these small, portable devices, they can read barcodes on items to add them to their virtual shopping carts. Then, at ‘Order Viewer,’ a touch-screen device installed in several spots within the store, customers can check and edit items in their shopping carts by placing the device on a dongle. Finally, to purchase the chosen items, customers can walk up to the self-checkout counter, instead of the existing POS checkout counter, and touch their device to confirm selected items, the total amount and make payment. The items they have purchased will then be delivered to their homes at the desired date and time, thus eliminating the cumbersome process of packing and carrying.

For retailers, Smart Shopper will not only enable them to reduce the size of their stores but also relieve the burden of holding large stocks at stores, which translates into improved efficiency and bottom lines.

■  Smart Credit Card, making wallets slimmer by integrating multiple cards into one smart card

Smart Credit Card is a next-generation card platform that integrates diverse plastic cards into one electronic card embedded with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and battery. The card has touch-sensitive buttons and a display panel to allow users to select and use a specific card depending on their situation. Moreover, Smart Credit Card is connected to users’ smartphone via BLE, enabling them to register or unregister cards and receive an automatic _alert on their smartphone in case of card loss or theft.

Smart Credit Card is expected to be adopted at a rapid pace as it utilizes the existing infrastructure of credit card member stores unlike mobile cards and NFC-based payment that requires member stores to set up a separate payment infrastructure.

■  Smart Stamp, eliminating paper loyalty cards through electronic stamping

SK Telecom has developed Smart Stamp Platform, a BLE-based electronic stamp service that allow retailers, including coffee shops and restaurants, to stamp directly on the customer’s smartphone to reward repeat visits.

With Smart Stamp, customers no longer have to carry a number of paper or plastic membership/loyalty cards as they can store them all in their smartphone and conveniently save up stamps through a simple touch of the smart stamp, even without having to activate a certain app.

The platform allows retailers to manage their customers more systematically and efficiently. They can either utilize SK Telecom’s smart stamp app or develop an app of their own by using the company’s SDK, to enable their customers to receive stamps on their loyalty cards stored in their smartphones. Along with SDK, SK Telecom also provides BLE stamp devices and certification server system to retailers.

■ Shopkick, a location-based personal shopping assistant

Shopkick is SK Planet’s representative Online to Offline (O2O) commerce platform that connects consumers to offline stores via smartphones. Based on BLE beacons, it provides customers with product and discount information of stores located near them, and gives points to those who scan barcodes on store items or make a payment.

At present, Shopkick joined hands with around 200 large-scale retailers such as Macy’s and global brands, including P&G and L’Oreal, to offer attractive and valuable shopping information to consumers. Furthermore, plans are underway to export the platform to the European markets starting with Germany.

About SK Telecom

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, KSE: 017670), established in 1984, is Korea’s largest telecommunications company with more than 28 million mobile subscribers, accounting for over 50% of the market. The company reached KRW 17.164 trillion in revenue in 2014. As the world’s first company to commercialize CDMA, CDMA 2000 1x, CDMA EV-DO and HSDPA networks, SK Telecom launched the nation’s first LTE service in July 2011. SK Telecom also became the world’s first mobile carrier to commercialize 150Mbps LTE-Advanced in June 2013 and 225Mbps LTE-Advanced in June 2014 through Carrier Aggregation(CA). In line with its efforts to swiftly move towards the next-generation mobile network system, or 5G, it successfully commercialized 300Mbps tri-band LTE-A CA. As of December 2014, the company has over 16.7 million LTE and LTE-Advanced subscribers. Based on its strength in network operations business, SK Telecom is seeking new growth engines in areas of platform, Big Data and convergence business. For more information, please visit www.sktelecom.com or email to press@sktelecom.com.