Lotte Mart has begun full operation of its "Zetta Smart Center Busan," a large-scale automated logistics center built with Ocado technology to revamp its online grocery business. The center, covering about 12,000 pyeong, employs up to 1,000 robots that handle most tasks, with only a little over 300 people stationed there. The robots move along grid-shaped rails in refrigerated and frozen storage areas, which are kept at minus 25 degrees, to transport products. Lotte Mart partnered with Ocado in Nov. 2022, investing about 200 billion won. Ground broke in Dec. 2023, construction took about 20 months, it was completed in Aug. last year, and after finishing integrated tests by July this year, it recently went into full operation. The center is the first in Korea to adopt Ocado's integrated solution, the "Ocado Smart Platform (OSP)," where artificial intelligence predicts demand and optimizes product placement, picking, packing, shipping, and delivery routes. Targeting 4 million households in Busan and the Yeongnam region, Lotte Mart increased daily delivery runs from about three to as many as 13, allowing users to choose delivery slots in 2- to 3-hour increments. Lotte Mart built the center to address customer complaints about wilted vegetables, missing items, and late deliveries in online grocery shopping.