Korea’s customs regulator is set to announce the winners of six new duty-free licenses Saturday evening, despite continued opposition from lawmakers and civic groups.Three of the licenses will be granted to large companies in the Seoul area. Five companies have bid for the licenses -- Lotte, SK Networks, Shinsegae, HDC Shilla and Hyundai Department Store. The rest of the licenses will go to small and medium enterprises and duty-free outlets outside of Seoul.The bidding and evaluation process ran

Industry Dec. 16, 2016

Convenience stores have long been a part of South Korea’s quick, fast-changing lifestyle, and they have now taken a step further by producing their own private brands.What makes their private brands work is the convenience store chains’ wide distribution capacities.Omori Kimchi stew ramen released by local convenience retail brand GS 25 and instant noodle maker Paldo. (GS Retail)Most convenience retail brands do not spend large sums of money on ads for their private brands, because promotion is

Industry Dec. 16, 2016

Ethan Kim, a 33-year-old marketer living in Seoul, says he cannot remember the last time he was in a grocery store.“I do most of my shopping online,” he says. “Everything else, I buy at a convenience store near my house. I usually stop and get something for dinner on my way home from work.”As the number of single-person households continues to rise in Korea, convenience stores have become the new offline retail outlets of choice, a rare sector of growth in a sluggish retail climate. According to

Industry Dec. 16, 2016

Korean convenience stores, arguably a slump-free business in times of weak local demand, are increasingly teaming up with services firms to attract more customers and to differentiate their business models, industry officials said.The latest move came from Korea’s biggest convenience store franchise GS Retail, which joined hands with budget telco service firm Annex Telecom to sell a low-cost USIM card.A user of Ticket Monster’s mobile shopping app TMon picks up her delivered product at a CU conv

Industry Dec. 16, 2016

This is the fifth installment in a series of articles on companies vying for Seoul’s new duty-free licenses to be issued Saturday -- Ed.　　HDC Shilla has promised to create a duty-free store catering to trendy millennials at the IPark Tower in Gangnam-gu if granted a new duty-free license. The IPark Tower in Gangnam-gu, Seoul (HDC Shilla)The joint venture between Hyundai Development and Hotel Shilla chose the artsy building designed by American architect Daniel Libeskind as the home of its next d

Industry Dec. 16, 2016

This is the fourth installment in a series of articles on companies vying for Seoul’s new duty-free licenses to be issued Saturday -- Ed.　SK Networks‘ Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel in Gwangjin-gu seeks to entice visitors by offering up a healing resort experience with shopping opportunities if it wins back a duty-free license. SK Networks has applied for the license to re-open its duty-free store at the Walkerhill Hotel, having expanded the floor space of its stores and storage by 2.5 times t

Industry Dec. 15, 2016

This is the first installment in a series of articles on companies vying for Seoul’s new duty-free licenses to be issued Saturday -- Ed.　Shinsegae’s duty-free operator announced Monday that it would invest 350 billion won ($300 million) over the next five years to develop and promote tourism in southern Seoul as part of its bid for a new duty-free license. Shinsegae DF is set to deliver a presentation Saturday to win a license to operate a new 13,350-square-meter outlet in Central City, a shoppi

Industry Dec. 12, 2016

Vodka brand Absolut has sparked ire among Koreans with a new advertisement image posted Saturday via social media that depicted a recent candlelight vigil.The image shows a time-lapse photo of Gwanghwamun Square during a massive candlelight vigil, with the shape of the crowd slightly altered to look like an Absolut Vodka bottle.The copy reads “Absolut Korea: The future is yours to create.” Absolut Korea‘s ad image posted to Facebook (Absolut Korea official Facebook)The online response to the ad

Industry Dec. 12, 2016

Foreign companies are cautiously watching the economic climate in Korea as the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye by the National Assembly brings uncertainty over policy direction in the future.With no way to ascertain how the change in leadership will affect economic policies, foreign companies operating in Korea remained wary about making definite plans or decisions affecting their operations here. National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun declares the motion to impeach President Park Geun-

Industry Dec. 9, 2016

When living in Korea, Naver is inescapable. The giant digital service provider is the dominant search engine, with countless services providing a collecting and curating experience for everything on the web, including news, music, shopping, real estate, navigation and video.The more the company diversifies its reach, the greater the challenge of keeping its brand identity together becomes. That task falls to the smiley, rangy 37-year-old Head of Service Design Kim Eon, who took up the post at th

Technology Dec. 9, 2016

Korea‘s customs service finalized plans Thursday to grant the next round of duty-free licenses next week, despite growing pressure to change the schedule amid a political scandal that has also spilled over to the duty-free project.The Korean Customs Service alerted bidders for new licenses that the evaluation of their presentations would take place over three days, from Thursday to Saturday next week.  Lotte World Tower in souther Seoul, where Lotte would re-open a duty-free store if granted a l

Industry Dec. 8, 2016

Exports of Korean instant noodles are poised to hit $300 million this year, with strong growth in unique premium products.According to the Korea Customs Service on Monday, exports of Korean ramen so far in 2016 have totaled $232.7 million, up from yearly totals of $218.8 million in 2015 and $208.5 million in 2014. This was the first year that exports had broken $200 million by the end of the third quarter.Leading ramen producer Nongshim is riding on the surge in exports. It announced Monday that

Industry Nov. 28, 2016

Gone are the days of men waiting in the resting area while their wife or girlfriend shops for them. South Korea’s middle-aged men are redefining their culture from the outdated and unattractive image embedded in the term “ajeossi,” to a younger and less formidable “ajae.”The new trend is also filtering into industries that were once considered sanctuaries for women, such as fashion, cosmetics and even plastic surgery.(123rf)Industries that traditionally focus on the younger generation, such as g

Industry Nov. 25, 2016

The number of department stores in Korea hit 100 at the end of last year, according to data released by the Korea Chainstores Association on Friday.The landmark number comes 85 years after Korea opened its first-ever department store, the Mitsukoshi Department Store Gyeongseong Branch, in 1930. As of October this year, Lotte Department Store had the most branches, with 33 outlets, followed by E-Land’s NC with 19, Hyundai at 15, and Shinsegae at 12. An interior shot of Shinsegae Department Store'

Industry Nov. 25, 2016

As the Korean population rapidly ages, government agencies and corporations alike are looking for ways to ease the social burdens that comes with it. Household products maker Yuhan-Kimberly is among the leading companies that have been actively promoting programs aimed at improving the lives of seniors.“Yuhan-Kimberly views the issue of aging as an opportunity rather than a crisis, and has been pursuing Creating Shared Value management since 2012 to create opportunities for senior business,” sai

Industry Nov. 24, 2016