What: The Hyundai has launched The Hyundai Hi, an e-commerce app that reframes online department-store shopping as a curated, gamified discovery experience.

Why it is important: The Hyundai Hi shows department stores can differentiate in fast, price-driven e-commerce markets by competing on curation and discovery rather than speed or price.

The Hyundai Hi, developed with Base Design, rethinks online retail around personal taste rather than search and price rankings. The platform brings together roughly 3,000 brands across fashion, beauty, home and food in shop-in-shop formats, replacing the retailer's previous e-commerce properties. Its central mechanic, "gems," lets users collect and share virtual jewels tied to products and content, functioning as a game-like alternative to likes or wishlists. "Icons" — external tastemakers across disciplines — curate original content and shape ongoing cultural conversations, while a community hub called The Me Space lets customers assemble and share their own lifestyle inspiration.

Positioned as "The Hyundai in your pocket," the app deliberately avoids competing with Korea's hyper-fast native e-commerce players on delivery speed or price. Instead, it leans into context, editorial storytelling and discovery. Since launch, the platform has generated $40.5 million in GMV, up 43.5% year-over-year, with audience growth of 326% to 9.6 million users and more than 470,000 new members, an increase of almost 560%.

IADS Notes: The Hyundai Hi's launch was first reported by WWD in July 2026, which recorded the same growth figures now being highlighted more broadly — 43.5% GMV growth and steep gains in registered users, visitors and traffic since the app's April soft launch. The retailer has paired this digital push with parallel investment in human-led service, launching a foreign-only Global CX Advisor group, as covered by Maeil Business Newspaper in August 2026. The underlying strategy — building non-transactional engagement to extend dwell time and loyalty — has precedent in Hyundai's physical stores: Korea JoongAng Daily reported in October 2025 on the sector-wide expansion of cultural centres and academy-style programming for that purpose, while The Chosun Daily noted in February 2026 that Hyundai, Shinsegae and Lotte have all been reorganizing store layouts around lifestyle and discovery rather than product category. The Hyundai Hi extends this same discovery-first logic into the digital channel.

Korean retailer The Hyundai launches immersive digital platform