Lotte set to open retail complex in Indonesia

Lotte Shopping Avenue, including a Lotte Department Store, Lotte Duty Free and Lotteria, opens in the shopping complex of Ciputra World Jakarta in the capital of Indonesia tomorrow. Provided by Lotte Shopping

Lotte Shopping is opening a retail complex in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, tomorrow.

Lotte Shopping Avenue will include a Lotte Department Store, a duty-free shop, an outlet of the fast food chain Lotteria and an Angel-in-us coffee shop.

It is Lotte’s first such mall in Indonesia and the fifth to open overseas. Lotte is the first Korean duty free store to expand to a foreign city. It opened a store and Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in January 2012.

Lotte Shopping Avenue will open in the Ciputra World Jakarta shopping complex in Mega Kuningan district in the capital city.

Ciputra World Jakarta is a 50-story skyscraper with a total floor area of 537,800 square meters (5.8 million square feet). It contains five-star hotels, office space, exhibition halls and theaters.

There will be about 480 fashion brands at its department store and shopping mall and 170 cosmetics and fashion brands at the duty free shop.

Lotte Duty Free’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport store has become a leader in the Indonesian duty free market.

“Based on the successful results of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport store, we will make sure that Lotte Duty Free will emerge as the center of Hallyu shopping by introducing popular brands and using Hallyu, or Korean wave, marketing,” said Lee Won-joon, CEO of Lotte Duty Free.

Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, has a population of 240 million, the 13 most populous nation in the world.

The retail industry in Jakarta has been developing significantly since 1999, when the expansion of foreign retailers accelerated.

Lotte Department Store signed an agreement to open a shopping mall and department store with the Indonesian real estate developer Ciputra Adigraha in May 2011.

In Indonesian shopping malls, similar brands are scattered on different floors. Lotte will group related products and brands on the same floor.

“The Avenue store will become a solid base for Lotte’s expansion into Southeast Asia based on a localization strategy and combination of the strengths of Korean shopping culture,” said Shin Heon, CEO of Lotte Department Store.

“Through active overseas business expansion, we will lay the foundation to become a global retail company.”

Through Lotte Shopping Avenue, fast fashion brands such as Uniqlo and H&M will enter the Indonesian market for the first time and a variety of Korean young fashion brands such as TBJ and Tate will also tap the market.

The company has created a food and beverage facility with such Korean restaurant chains as Bulgogi Brothers and the smoked duck restaurant Tosung Franchise.

Lotte Duty Free has also introduced a one-stop shopping service for consumers to compare various products at a glance.

The duty free shop plans to actively promote its Avenue store through joint marketing with local banks, airlines and travel agencies.

Lotte Department store will open about 40 stores in countries such as Vietnam, Russia, Indonesia and China by 2018, raising its overseas sales to 25 percent of total sales.

Until now, it has opened four stores in Russia and China. It plans to open a store in Chengdu, China in August. Next year, it will open stores in Shenyang, China and Hanoi.

Lotte Duty Free is preparing a bid to open a store in Singapore’s Changi International Airport. It has been operating a fashion and souvenir store at the airport since last year.

BY KIM JUNG-YOON [kjy@joongang.co.kr]