Shinsegae’s Chicor opens flagship store in Gangnam

Shinsegae Group’s cosmetics store Chicor is opening a flagship store on Friday near Gangnam Station, southern Seoul.

This will be the first Chicor branch to operate outside a Shinsegae retailer. All five stores previously opened are located inside Shinsegae Department Stores or the retail giant’s mall, Starfield. The four-story Gangnam flagship store will present products from high-end beauty brands like Nars, Mac and Bobby Brown to smaller Korean brands, all selected by Chicor’s merchandisers.

The interior will be divided into 10 sections, according to the product sector, from skin care and hair to color cosmetics. The site is in the heart of a district surrounded by major foreign language institutes and filled with consumers in their 20s and 30s.

What’s different about the new store is that beauty specialists will be placed inside to offer advice and services such as scalp massages and makeup trials. Other Chicor stores had emphasized offering customers a space where they can freely try on products, and therefore hired less staff.

Launched last December, Chicor is one of Shinsegae’s specialty stores that sells products of a particular category, this one being color cosmetics.

By Song Kyoung-son