[MD2.0]③AI Stays at the Desk, The Real Answer Lies in the Field

MD Survival Strategies in the Age of AI

AI Can’t Resolve On-site Issues

Reinforcing Content Must Begin in the Field

At the Noryangjin Fishery Wholesale Market located in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Jaeyoung Joo, Product Merchandiser (MD) of Lotte Mart and Supervision Team, is discussing product-related matters with partners. Photo by Yeju Han

At the Lotte Mart headquarters in Seoul, Jaeyoung Joo—born in 1998 and the sashimi and sushi merchandiser (MD) for the seafood team at Lotte Mart and Lotte Super—begins his day with an incessantly ringing phone. His mornings start with communication. He checks on the freshness, quality, and sales status of sashimi products by making consecutive calls to seafood staff at Lotte's hypermarkets, medium-sized stores, and small branches nationwide. Because seafood often has to be discarded after just one day, the meticulous management by in-store employees is directly linked to the competitiveness of the products.

On-site inspections are also essential. To verify product quality and monitor consumer trends, Joo visits the Noryangjin Fishery Market on a regular basis. Originally, Lotte Mart’s seafood counter operated on a consignment basis, with external partners directly selling the goods and paying commissions. Now, however, the head office directly procures seafood and distributes it to all stores under a “direct purchasing system,” making the MD’s role more important than ever. Reducing costs through bulk purchasing and maintaining consistent quality are both crucial for securing price competitiveness.

Checking prices at the producing sites is a daily routine as well. Joo calls major production regions—including Jeju, Noryangjin, and Incheon—every day to check the current price of flatfish, using this information as a negotiation tool. He remarked, “You need to compare prices between different sources to settle on a fair price during negotiations. Going out, actively gathering information, and putting in the legwork ultimately leads to a competitive edge.”

Strong personal relationships with store staff and real-time communication are key. Artificial intelligence (AI) cannot address the subtle issues of dissatisfaction or slight quality drops that might occur on-site. Joo emphasized, “I take 50 to 60 calls every day. There’s no such thing as night and day, nor a single day off, but without passion and direct engagement with the field, it’s impossible to be a successful fresh food merchandiser.”

Juyeong Joo, Merchandiser (MD) of Lotte Mart and Supervision Team at Lotte Mart Yangpyeong Branch located in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, is discussing product sales status and customer responses with the seafood department manager of the store. Photo by Yejoo Han

Driving Sellouts through “Emotional Appeal”… “Responsibility Cannot Be Replaced by AI”

The “human domain”—the nuanced judgment that data on a monitor alone cannot resolve—stands out particularly in the real-time home shopping live broadcasting fields, where sales figures are updated minute by minute. Hwang Hyoeun, a ninth-year merchandiser on the kitchen team who leads Lotte Homeshopping’s flagship program “Choi Yoo Ra Show,” spends each day in rigorous team meetings with producers, show hosts, and partners. With a target sales goal of 500 million to 600 million won in a single hour-long show, the MD’s input and sense of responsibility are absolutely critical—from inventory management to picking key marketing points (Unique Selling Proposition, USP).

In particular, kitchenware sourced globally can take anywhere from six months to two years from planning to launch. The French luxury knife brand “Lyon Sabatier,” which Hwang MD personally introduced and drove to a sellout, took two years from planning to broadcast. She visited the factory in France herself to secure a supply of hand-made products, and then persuaded the manufacturer to tailor the knives’ shape and size—originally designed for European hands—to better suit Asians, including Korean consumers.

Hwang explained, “If you want to sell to the core 50s-to-60s demographic of home shopping viewers, simple repetition of functional benefits isn’t enough—‘emotional appeal’ is essential, and this is a field where AI cannot take over. Especially with broadcasting, where you face mass audiences and must comply with strict review rules, it is the merchandiser’s sense of responsibility and personal trust that mediate between the company and its partners—qualities that AI will never be able to replicate.”

Hwang Hyoeun, MD of the Kitchen Team at Lotte Homeshopping. Lotte Homeshopping

“The Beauty Market Is Dominated by Emotional Factors”

The situation is similar at CJ Olive Young. As AI and data analytics tools have advanced, there is now an environment where merchandisers can reference not only sales data, but also search keywords, reviews, and reactions on social media—allowing for a more multidimensional understanding of consumer demand. Still, Olive Young’s merchandisers point out that “the beauty market is ruled by emotional factors and rapid trend shifts, which cannot easily be captured by numbers alone.” AI excels at making stable recommendations based on accumulated historical data. However, the ability to spot the growth potential of indie brands or new products—those not yet on the market, and thus lacking any data—or to synthesize customer needs and hidden trends to make market suggestions, remains a uniquely human function for MDs.

For merchandisers at traditional offline retail channels such as department stores, strengthening content competitiveness often means scouting neighborhoods like Seongsu, Hongdae, and Itaewon in person to discover new brands, and proposing pop-up stores or shop-in-shop opportunities. The merchandiser’s own judgment remains crucial in deciding which brands to bring in, which pop-ups to offer, and which content to combine to transform the entire space into a holistic experience.

Competition between department stores is now centered on content preemption. Setting up highly buzzworthy pop-up stores and securing major intellectual property (IP) content are part of the same trend. As one department store insider put it, “In the past, most of my time was spent in the office reviewing brand proposals. Now, far more time is devoted to finding and meeting with trending brands on the ground, setting up meetings and securing content before competitors do—all of which has become a critical part of the merchandiser’s work.”

Demand Grows for MDs with 7–8 Years of Experience

The distribution industry is aggressively seeking experienced merchandisers (MDs). Negotiation, coordination, partner management, and brand development are all abilities that come with experience. Major retail companies are increasingly focusing their hiring on MDs with practical work experience rather than new graduates. This has led to a career path in which rookies gain experience at specialized online malls or stores before moving on to major distribution companies.

According to an executive search professional in the distribution sector, “AI may reduce large amounts of routine work and simple clerical tasks, but the real essence of the MD role is to coordinate work between internal departments and to achieve mutually beneficial agreements through close direct communication with partner companies. The most important skills for an MD are executional ability—translating trends into action—negotiation skills based on real execution, and communication. That’s why even now, the market overwhelmingly favors veteran MDs with at least seven to eight years of experience and a sophisticated professional network over fresh hires.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.