SEOUL, May 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean duty-free shops are struggling to cope with an industry-wide slump as flight suspensions and a subsequent fall in the number of customers have severely dented their sales amid the new coronavirus pandemic. With no imminent signs of business turnaround, duty-free operators have called for support measures from [...]
SEOUL, May 26 (Korea Bizewire) — Beset by falling revenues amid the new coronavirus pandemic, South Korean retailers have been struggling to stay afloat by expanding the online sales business amid the non-contact trend. Now, they are further going online by taking the note of livestreaming shopping tools in a bid to woo more customers. [...]
SEOUL, May 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean duty-free stores saw their sales drop sharply below the 1 trillion-won (US$804 million) mark in April, feeling the pinch of the fallout from the new coronavirus, industry data showed Tuesday. Combined sales of local duty-free shops shrank 9.2 percent on-month to 986.7 billion won last month, according [...]
SEOUL, May 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Uniqlo’s budget brand GU, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and a boycott of Japan in place since last summer, will withdraw from South Korea. FRL Korea Co., an operator of Uniqlo Korea, recently announced that GU will stop operating offline stores in the country around [...]
SEOUL, May 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Lotte Shopping Co., the operator of South Korea’s biggest department store chain, said Sunday it will sell 121 brick-and-mortar stores within this year amid the new coronavirus impact on the retail industry. Lotte Shopping runs about 700 department stores, large discount stores, supermarkets and LOHB’s online shopping mall’s offline [...]
SEJONG, May 19 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s finance ministry said Tuesday it will ease regulations on alcoholic drinks, in a bid for local producers to increase their competitiveness against foreign firms. Under the deregulatory move, which is subject to approval from the National Assembly, local firms will be allowed to produce alcoholic drinks under [...]
SEOUL, May 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean confectionery company Orion Corp. said Thursday it plans to strengthen its market presence with a reasonably priced snack line in China and Vietnam following its launch in South Korea. The reasonably priced snack line will offer products that focus on “cost-effectiveness” by setting prices based on convenience [...]
SEOUL, May 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Outdoor activities are on the rise as the coronavirus outbreak stabilizes in South Korea, but products that help people minimize contact with others are still gaining popularity. WeMakePrice Inc., a local open market operator, said Wednesday that sales of camping gear designed to help people to sleep in their [...]
SEOUL, May 6 (Korea Bizwire) — U.S.-based electronic cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. said Wednesday that it will pull out of South Korea one year after its launch here following controversies over health concerns. Juul — which packages nicotine salts from leaf tobacco into one-time use cartridges — was launched in the country last May. [...]
SEOUL, May 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping surged nearly 12 percent from a year earlier in March, data showed Wednesday, an apparent outcome of the new coronavirus outbreak that forced people to stay home. The value of online transactions came to about 12.58 trillion won (US$10.3 billion) in the month, up 11.8 percent from [...]