SEOUL, March 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top portal operator Naver Corp. and retail giant Shinsegae Group said Tuesday they agreed to a share swap deal valued at 250 billion won (US$221 million) to strengthen their foothold in the highly competitive e-commerce sector. Under the agreement, Naver will buy 150 billion won worth of [...]
SEOUL, March 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s home-meal replacement product market was estimated at 4.2 trillion won (US$3.68 billion) in 2019, data showed Thursday, with the sector expected to continue to grow down the road on the growing number of single-member households. The annual average growth of the segment was 16 percent since 2010, [...]
SEOUL, March 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean department store chains saw their sales exceed pre-coronavirus levels last weekend. The warm weather of spring, coupled with ongoing vaccinations, is seen to have burst the urge for consumption withheld for the last 12 months. On the weekend of March 5-7, Hyundai Department Store saw a 109.8 [...]
SEOUL, March 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea announced Thursday it plans to invest 300 billion won (US$267 million) over the next three years to speed up the growth of the digital retail segment, which has recently enjoyed an unprecedented boom amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the plan, the country will not only pave the [...]
SEOUL, March 3 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s department stores have seen a spike in sales of cosmetics after the government lifted restrictions on the use of samples. To comply with the government’s infection-control measures, department stores stopped the use of samples within outlets from December 24 last year. Such restrictions, however, were lifted on [...]
SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean hypermarket chain operator Homeplus Co. said Monday that it will set up a mobility service platform that will enable customers to buy and sell cars and motorcycles at its outlets. The company said that based on the fact that most of its customers use their own cars [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The amount of single-use plastic waste is increasing at a remarkable pace as the outbreak of the coronavirus has led to exponential growth in food deliveries and online shopping. The more plastics are used, the more important it is to dispose of them separately. In particular, the separate disposal [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Retail sales in South Korea rose 6 percent in January from a year earlier as more consumers purchased daily necessities from online stores, with the demand for gift items ahead of the Lunar New Year’s holiday also bolstering the sales, data showed Thursday. The combined sales of 26 major [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Convenience stores are becoming a popular channel for sales of cosmetics products. GS25, a convenience store chain run by GS Retail Co., reported an 18.2 percent increase in cosmetics sales last year compared to 2019. Sales growth surpassed records from 2018 (15.4 percent) and 2019 (16.9 percent), reflecting rising [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — With social distancing becoming a new norm due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, convenience stores are emerging as new centers of everyday life, leaving an impact on the retail landscape. Against this backdrop, some tobacco companies are cutting their sales staff. Philip Morris Korea Inc. recently downsized the sales [...]