Shinsegae's online shopping mall launches blockchain-based certification service for luxury goods

By Park Sae-jin Posted : August 25, 2021, 10:44 Updated : August 25, 2021, 10:44

[Courtesy of SSG.com]


SEOUL -- In an effort to differentiate its service from other online shopping mall operators, South Korea's retail giant Shinsegae has launched a digital certification service for luxury goods. Non-fungible tokens, blockchain-based digital tokens, are issued for each item to prove the authenticity of products.

A blockchain is an unhackable virtual ledger network system. Such a system is widely used in many sectors including the financial sector and the logistics center because of the network's strong security. A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital token with a unique digital asset designed to represent ownership of a virtual or a physical item.

SSG.com, the online shopping mall wing of Shinsegae, said in a statement on August 25 that the company launched "SSG Guarantee," a luxury goods digital authentication service. When a customer purchases a luxury item through SSG.com, an NFT token containing purchase information such as the product's serial number, purchase date, and warranty information, would be issued via a smartphone app.

"Once an NFT is issued, it is impossible to hack or duplicate the digital coin," an SSG official was quoted as saying. Shinsegae's NFT service is based on "KLAYTON," a commercial blockchain network operated by GROUNDX, the blockchain service wing of South Korea's web service giant Kakao.

Earlier in August, Shinsegae International, the fashion shopping mall operator wing of Shinsegae, released a plan to adopt a digital warranty service for products sold through its online mall by the end of 2021. The fashion retailer joined hands with Amazon Web Services, the on-demand cloud computing service wing of U.S. Online shopping giant Amazon, to jointly develop the online warranty system.
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