Reporting and analysis on retail, e-commerce, and consumer trends in Korea, updated continuously by our newsroom.
Citizens of South Korean city Daegu are working together on social media to prop up local businesses hit hard by the rapidly growing coronavirus outbreak. A Facebook page introducing restaurants in Daegu posted Friday that many establishments are losing money…
IT recruitment firm TopDev has secured a million-dollar investment from South Korea’s leading recruitment company Saramin HR. The Ho Chi Minh City-based company said in a statement Monday that the deal, whose exact value it did not reveal, would be used to…
South Korean convenience-store operator BGF Retail has been fined for pushing exorbitant sales promotion costs onto its suppliers. The firm was ordered to pay KRW1.67 billion (US$1.4 million) for its breach of the Act on Fair Transactions in Large Retail…
Competition among South Korean convenience stores over delivery services is heating up. One chain, GS25, recently launched delivery services from seven stores in Seoul in partnership with food-delivery service Coupang Eats operated by e-commerce giant…
An LG robotic waiter has made its debut at a local restaurant in Seoul. The LG CLOi ServeBot comes with indoor autonomous driving technology and an obstacle avoidance system so it doesn’t crash into furniture, customers or colleagues. The robot is capable of…
Competition among South Korean convenience stores over delivery services is heating up. One chain, GS25, recently launched delivery services from seven stores in Seoul in partnership with food-delivery service Coupang Eats operated by e-commerce giant…
South Korean consumers are opting to avoid crowded places, causing restaurant bookings to plunge by as much as half as fears grow of the spreading coronavirus. “Lunar New Year, followed by graduation and enrollment ceremonies, should have been a chance to…
Japanese chocolatier Royce is shuttering its operations in South Korea. The brand’s local retailer Royce’ Confect Korea said in an announcement last Wednesday that it will close all nine of its locations in the territory, including five shops in Seoul. The…
Rumors that South Korea’s foodservice industry is in a slump have been scotched by new data showing the sector is actually growing at a steady 9 percent annually And it’s the thriving coffee sector which is driving much of the growth. Analysts say the gap…
South Korean convenience-store chain GS25, owned by GS Retail, has opened a futuristic convenience store without a checkout counter in Jung District, Seoul this week. The store, which is located in the headquarters building of a local credit card company BC…
Stocks of major South Korean cosmetics and duty-free operators traded higher yesterday amid hopes that China may lift its retaliatory economic measures underway for years against Seoul’s decision to deploy a US anti-missile system there. AmorePacific, the…
South Korean convenience-store owners are canceling 24-service as minimum wage rise has eroded profits. Last year, president Moon Jae-in launched a campaign to raise the hourly minimum wage by 29 percent over two years. With night-shift employees earning…
In a recent blog post on the Microsoft website, the company detailed steps it has taken to take legal action against a cybercrime group and protect customer information. The security threat came from a group known as Thallium, which reportedly is based in…
Genesis BBQ, a major South Korean fried-chicken chain, opened a new ‘smart store’ in Seoul’s Songpa District this month. There are no employees to take orders at the store. Instead, there are tablet PCs on each table that are used to order food. The food made…
The Ministry of Science and ICT in South Korea reports the country is close to hitting the milestone of four million 5G subscribers. While it’s often debated whether South Korea or the US was first to launch a commercially available 5G network, both countries…
South Korea is aiming to become the third-largest cosmetics exporter in the world by 2022. The move will be made through extensive investment in research and development and concerted marketing efforts, the government said Thursday. “The goal is to ship out…
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