SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s imports of key consumer goods from Japan fell for the seventh consecutive month in January as a boycott of Japanese goods has dragged out amid their monthslong feud over their shared wartime history, data showed Tuesday. Imports of consumer goods from Japan dipped 35.9 percent from a [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The home shopping industry is struggling with a constant shortage of masks due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Ministry of Science and ICT held an emergency meeting with home shopping businesses on Feb. 6, which decided to include a special program to sell masks. Hyundai Home Shopping began airing [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has placed a strain on air cargo transportation worldwide, especially on routes to and from China and the U.S., and international logistics in general have slowed. “Because of the coronavirus, the number of aircraft departing from the U.S. has been reduced due to [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The slump in fortunes at large discount stores is continuing and the growth of convenience stores is accelerating in line with social changes, including an increase in the number of single-person households and the rising popularity of online shopping. Amid such circumstances, convenience store chains made more money than [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Lotte Shopping Co., the operator of South Korea’s biggest department store chain, said Thursday it will sell assets after posting a loss for 2019, while the country’s largest discount store chain operator, Emart Inc., reported weaker than expected earnings as well. Lotte Shopping will sell 200, or 30 percent, [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of toys and functional foods are surging in South Korea as children stay home longer and people pay more attention to their health due to a prolonged new coronavirus scare, industry sources said Wednesday. Online shopping site Auction said its sales of toys for toddlers and children skyrocketed [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans are increasingly favoring shopping online for daily necessities due to safety concerns over the spread of a new strain of coronavirus, analysts said Tuesday. “Shopper sentiment has grown more against offline shopping,” said SK Securities Co. analyst Lee So-joong, after people later diagnosed with the new coronavirus [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean retail industry may suffer larger losses from the novel coronavirus than the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015, analysts said Monday, citing the new virus’ high rate of infection and tightened quarantine efforts. “The new coronavirus may have a lower fatality rate compared with MERS, [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — With the spread of the novel coronavirus infection, sales of food for home cooking are on the rise at large discount stores. As consumers are reluctant to go out, bulk products or non-perishable items are becoming popular. E-Mart Inc., the country’s leading discount chain operator, compared its sales between [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Lotte Department Store, one of the country’s major department store chain operators, said Friday that one of its outlets in downtown Seoul will be temporarily closed starting late Friday for a cleanup following a recent visit there by a patient diagnosed with the new coronavirus. The store in the [...]