Hyundai Card and Costco have become partners. As of May 24, customers have started to pay with their Hyundai credit cards at all of the 16 Costco stores and online mall in South Korea.

“This is not just a partnership for payments, we plan on building a full-blown partnership to create synergies together over the next decade,” said the credit card company in a statement.

“Hyundai Card will provide Costco members with more customized benefits by combining the exclusive rewards that Costco already offers its customers and the data science and marketing capabilities that Hyundai Card has. The partnership with Costco will create a new paradigm for collaboration between financial services and retail industries.”

Industry sources are calling the new partnership a natural outcome given the status of Costco within the Korean wholesale market and the innovation Hyundai Card has initiated over the years.

In Korea, Costco posts annual sales of 4 trillion won ($3.4 billion) from some 1.91 million customers. The wide client base is part of why so many credit card companies want to partner with Costco.

For the last four years, Hyundai Card has been transforming itself into a data science company based on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain technology. It is the first Korean financial firm to go in this direction. Based on such data and expertise, Hyundai Card and Costco will be able to jointly analyze and manage customer information and provide Costco members with new benefits, such as customized products and reward recommendations.

They have also made each other’s services available on all mutual marketing channels to give customers access to services from both firms. Hyundai Card will also cooperate with Costco by developing services targeting corporate customers and programs combining Costco products with the specialized physical spaces built by Hyundai Card.

“The two parties are also putting a lot of efforts to minimize any inconveniences stemming from the change of the card service partnership,” said a Hyundai Card official. For this, it has been offering a variety of credit card issuance channels from August 2018, such as online card registrations and card sign-up kiosks at Costco branches or Hyundai Card offices close to them.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)