SEOUL, April 25 (Korea Bizwire) – Shopping was the most preferred activity by foreigners who came to South Korea during the PyeongChang Olympics earlier this year, excluding visiting or participating in the Winter Games, a government survey showed Wednesday. According to the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games International Visitors Survey, 58.3 percent of visitors who were [...]
SEJONG, Mar. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans’ direct purchases from foreign countries rose to a record high last year on rising demand for cheaper and different products, customs data showed Tuesday. A total of US$2.11 billion worth of foreign goods was directly bought by South Korean shoppers via overseas internet shopping malls last year, [...]
SEOUL, May 17 (Korea Bizwire) – Demand is high for overseas luxury goods, particularly among younger consumers in their 20s and 30s, despite South Korea’s unrelenting economic slump. According to Lotte Department Store, sales of overseas fashion items, largely comprising of high-end brands, jumped by more than 30 percent in 2016 compared to 2015 for [...]
SEOUL, April 26 (Korea Bizwire) – Lotte Department Store’s Myeongdong location became South Korea’s first retail outlet on Monday to introduce robot shopping assistant “el Bot.” The 1.2-meter-tall machine is capable of providing various information to shoppers, according to officials. For example, it can recommend and give directions to restaurants inside the department store, or [...]
SEOUL, March 27 (Korea Bizwire) – The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy said Sunday that it will be rolling out a Virtual Reality Shopping Mall during this year’s Korea Sale Festa – Korean Black Friday – that consumers will be able to use to shop and place orders and have the goods delivered to [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – There is a sense of hierarchical bipartisanship when one visits a Korean department store; there are the VIPs, and the non-VIPs. Korean department stores have been expanding their VIP programs, targeting specifically the “haves” by either lowering the purchase requirements for the programs or introducing more VIP “levels” to [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – As in America, Black Friday hype is also sweeping the Korean peninsula with local consumers looking for the best deals and discounts. But at the same time, the hype has bred victims of fraudulent activity, sounding a note of caution reminding consumers to be cautious with their purchase decisions. [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – The total number of department stores operating across the country came to 100 last year, industry watchers said Friday, as more leading players are aggressively expanding and diversifying their outlets. A total of 100 department stores were operating as of the end of 2015, with the number to increase [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s retail and tourism industries are seeking ways to embrace a growing number of independent travelers from China with customized services as Beijing is set to tighten regulations on cheap package tours, industry officials said Monday. Duty-free operators and department stores have stepped up customized marketing targeted at [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Korea Bizwire) – A recent study from the Seoul Institute indicated that although the city’s consumer sentiment improved slightly in the third quarter, the market’s expectations for economic recovery were further downgraded. In its report 2016 Q3 Seoul Public Economy Consumer Sentiment Diagnosis (issued October 30), the city’s consumer sentiment index (CSI) [...]