Emart, Lotte Mart could soon launch early-morning delivery after ban lifted

A shopper selects fresh produce at a large supermarket in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

Major retailers such as Emart and Lotte Mart could soon roll out early-morning delivery nationwide as part of efforts to revise laws that currently restrict large discount stores’ e-commerce operating hours.

According to officials in the political and retail sectors, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the government and the presidential office held a policy coordination meeting Wednesday to discuss possible revisions to the Distribution Industry Development Act.

As Coupang has come to dominate a large share of the market, a massive data breach at the company in November has prompted the government to look to other retailers to help handle early-morning delivery, part of a broader effort to reduce reliance on a single dominant platform.

Under current law, large discount stores are barred from operating between midnight and 10 a.m. and are required to close on two designated days each month.

As a result of these constraints, offline retailers have been forced to operate only limited delivery services within the bounds of the law.

Emart has offered dawn delivery through its e-commerce affiliates, including SSG.com and Gmarket, but the service has largely been limited to the Seoul metropolitan area. Lotte and GS Retail, which also entered the dawn delivery market through their online affiliates, withdrew from the service in 2022 after about two years, citing cost pressures. Homeplus abandoned dawn delivery altogether, shifting instead to quick-commerce options such as one-hour and evening delivery.

Policymakers are now considering adding an exception clause that would exclude e-commerce-related business activities from existing restrictions. The proposed amendment would state that the restrictions on late-night and early-morning operations "shall not apply to business activities conducted for the purpose of e-commerce."

A shopper selects fresh produce at a large supermarket in Seoul, Feb. 1. Yonhap

If passed by the National Assembly, the revision will allow large discount stores and corporate-run supermarkets to carry out activities such as packaging, outbound logistics and delivery during restricted hours, letting them fully leverage their nationwide network of offline stores as logistics hubs.

Emart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus operate not only large discount stores but also supermarkets, giving them the potential to build a far denser logistics network. Unlike e-commerce companies, which often confine dawn delivery to the Seoul metropolitan area and other major hub cities for cost reasons, large discount retailers could offer much broader online delivery coverage.

The operating-hour restrictions on retailers were introduced in 2013 in order to protect traditional markets and safeguard workers’ health rights. At the time, the regulations were seen as a necessary measure to prevent large retailers from encroaching on small neighborhood businesses while also limiting excessive working hours.

However, the regulations ultimately benefited e-commerce giants such as Coupang, rather than fulfilling their original purpose of protecting small merchants. Coupang rolled out next-day “Rocket Delivery” in 2014 and dawn delivery services in 2018, capitalizing on rules that applied exclusively to offline retailers and gaining a significant competitive advantage as a result. Coupang’s annual revenue reached 41.3 trillion won in 2024, surpassing the combined retail sales of all major discount stores in Korea, which stood at 37.1 trillion won.

Yet, regulatory easing is not being welcomed by all quarters.

Small merchants strongly oppose broader revisions that would eliminate not only dawn delivery restrictions but also operating-hour limits and mandatory closure days altogether.

“If large discount stores are allowed to offer dawn delivery, consumer demand and purchasing behavior will shift entirely toward major retailers, accelerating the collapse of local small neighborhood businesses,” the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise Associations said in a statement released earlier this month.