Retailers are speeding up competition to offer quicker delivery services as they go beyond next-day or same-day deliveries to offer one-hour delivery services.

GS Retail Co. introduced a new ‘49-minute Thunder Delivery’ service available on the company’s exclusive mobile delivery app on June 22.

Limited to areas in proximity of a local GS Supermarket, products ordered from the ‘U-dong Mart’ category listed in the app are delivered within 49 minutes of the order being placed.

CJ Olive Young, a major health and beauty store chain, shortened the delivery time for all orders placed between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. from an average of three hours down to 45 minutes this year.

The one-hour rush-hour delivery service introduced by Lotte Super last November at its Jamsil branch has expanded to other branches in Seoul’s Gangbuk area, as well as the Gyeonggi and Incheon regions.