SEOUL, April 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Despite an economic slowdown, sales of luxury products in South Korea soared in the first quarter of 2015 partly due to recent price cuts by major luxury brands, data showed Wednesday. Lotte Department Store saw sales of luxury products jump 15.7 percent on-year in the January-March period, with sales of [...]
SEOUL, April 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The ‘Hyeri Lunchbox,’ a convenience store lunch box line that features the likeness of Girl’s Day’s Hyeri, has seen sales of 500,000 units since it was first launched three weeks ago. Convenience store chain Seven Eleven released two lunch boxes on March 12, both featuring Hyeri, and they have topped [...]
SEOUL, April 1 (Korea Bizwire) – A position once occupied by down jackets from The North Face and Canada Goose has now been taken over by Randoseru backpacks from Japan, the latest “must-have” for Korean elementary school children, and a financial backbreaker for their parents. According to Consumer Research, which conducted a study on major brands [...]
SEJONG, March 31 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s duty-free shop sales surged 21.6 percent on-year in 2014, the finance ministry said Tuesday, thanks to the steady rise in foreign travelers. Data sent by the ministry to the National Assembly showed sales by the 43 duty-free shops in the country hitting 8.3 trillion won (US$7.5 billion) last [...]
SEOUL, March 27 (Korea Bizwire) – Before the opening of the first IKEA store in Korea last year, Korean furniture companies were worried about the threat posed by the Swedish behemoth. Many industry observers said the impact of IKEA in Korea would be felt across the industry. Without a doubt, IKEA has been big hit in [...]
SEOUL, March 24 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations has sent a letter of inquiry to the OECD to investigate Tesco-owned supermarket Homeplus over allegations that the company sold customers’ private information to insurance firms, according to a statement on March 23. The council claimed that Homeplus and its parent company Tesco [...]
SEOUL, March 20 (Korea Bizwire) – Prices at the recently opened IKEA store in Gwangmyeong, on the outskirts of Seoul, are among the most expensive in the OECD. The only country with higher average prices than Korea is IKEA’s home base of Sweden. The global furniture giant appears to have chosen a high-price policy in Korea, [...]
SEOUL, March 20 (Korea Bizwire) — Korean card companies are throwing themselves at Costco Korea in hopes of developing an affiliate partnership, as the company’s current agreement with Samsung Card ends in May. Costco’s corporate policy is to only have one card partnership agreement per country, and its affiliation with Samsung Card has been in place for [...]
SEOUL, March 19 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean retailers and furniture makers are turning to the homeware business, a nascent industry awakened by the local opening of Swedish furniture giant IKEA that promises big growth ahead as South Koreans begin to renovate and decorate their aging homes. Over the past year, a handful of homeware stores [...]
SEOUL, March 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean retail giant Lotte Group said Thursday it has signed a 1.02 trillion won (US$906 million) contract to buy a car rental service firm, seeking to diversify its business portfolio. Lotte said it will fund the purchase of KT Rental by May via its hotel affiliate Hotel Lotte. Lotte [...]