Retailers cooking up range of promotions to win young customers

Industry

Published: 14 Mar. 2023, 14:42 Updated: 14 Mar. 2023, 14:45

Retailers cooking up range of promotions to win young customers

A wine bar on the first floor of Hyundai Department Mokdong branch's annex building [HYUNDAI DEPARTMENT STORE]

Retailers are drawing up a wide range of strategies to encourage consumption amid a shopping slowdown.

Koreans spent 5 percent less in the fall last year than in the same period a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea data on Tuesday. To counter this weakening sentiment, targeting specific customers group is one strategy that retail companies are eyeing.

Hyundai Department Store opened an event hall for customers in their 20s and 30s at its Mokdong branch on Monday. The department store in western Seoul hosts clothing brands and restaurants that are popular with young Koreans on different floors of the building.

This strategy follows on the heels of the success of The Hyundai Seoul in Yeouido, western Seoul, which enjoyed yearly sales nearing 1 trillion won ($765 million) two years after it opened in February 2021. Many experts attribute the outcome to Hyundai Department Store’s marketing strategy that targets the young population.

Other retailers seek to solidify the high value-added luxury sector.

Lotte ON, an e-commerce platform run from Lotte Shopping, operates “On and the Luxury,” an online curation service that provides automated, customer-customized luxury goods recommendations. In January, Lotte ON reached its highest-ever luxury sales, and in February, the sales more than doubled on year.

Shinsegae’s online shopping mall, SSG.com, opened an LVMH beauty zone last month, and 11st Street opens its own online luxury shop, “OOAh luxe.”

A customer shops for promotional products at an Emart 24 store in Seongsu-dong, eastern Seoul, on Monday. [EMART 24]

Convenience stores are also trying to attract more customers with updated promotional events.

Emart 24 runs a promotional event where it gives out a 20,000-won mobile coupon for customers who buy more than a set amount of 2+1 products, it announced Sunday. It also added some 400 products to the 1+1 and 2+1 products list.

CU will provide a free parcel delivery coupon for every two delivery requests made starting Monday.

GS Retail’s GS The Fresh supermarket began same-day delivery of fresh hoe (raw fish) dishes, delivering orders made before 12 p.m. by 8 p.m. the same day.

BY BAEK IL-HYUN, SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]