South Korea’s retail giant Lotte Shopping announced a 3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) investment plan to become the country’s top e-commerce operator by 2022.

Lotte Shopping said on Tuesday it would invest 3 trillion won to strengthen its e-commerce business and integrate all eight online shopping platforms operated by its affiliated companies - department store, discount store, home shopping and duty-free store operators - into one online shopping platform.

To implement the plan, the company will first launch a specialized e-commerce business division that will bring online systems and research and operating staffs currently scattered across its affiliates under one roof in August. The division and newly integrated online shopping mall will be operated by Lotte Shopping, which acquired its online retail site operating affiliate Lotte.com for its stable operation, it said.

The company also plans to build a voice-activated shopping assistant system that will allow customers to use artificial intelligence (AI) in choosing and buying goods.

Lotte Shopping’s revenue from online sales last year reached about 7 trillion won, the third largest in Korea after Gmarket and 11st.com. The company expects its membership of 38 million users and 11,000 brick-and-mortar stores will help it raise its presence in the Korean e-commerce market.

“We aim to earn 20 trillion won in revenue by 2022, and we’ll go all out to be the leader in the e-commerce market,” said Lotte Shopping.

Shares of Lotte Shopping closed Tuesday up 0.42 percent at 236,500 won.

By Lee Han-na and Lee Ha-yeon

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