South Korea’s retail conglomerate Lotte Group is ratcheting up efforts to promote its own mobile payment platform, Lotte L Pay.

Industry watchers say the popularity of mobile payment services is gaining popularity over previous months amid the rising number of smartphone users.

Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin was recently quoted as saying by corporate officials that L Pay is an “important asset” for the business group, adding that Lotte should expand the scope and quality of the services provided by the L Pay platform.

Shin also highlighted the importance of expanding business partnerships to garner a larger slice of users in the market.

The business group has been making efforts to establish “omnichannel” solutions, which refer to bringing together online and offline shopping platforms.

L Pay is significant as it allows users to manage their mileage at shops and restaurants operated by Lotte Group, including Lotte Cinema, 7-Eleven and Lotte Department Store.

The service has been forging ties with eight South Korean credit card firms and is also in talks with Samsung Electronics Co to have L Pay applied to Samsung Pay.

• Original reporting by Yonhap.