Reporting and analysis on retail, e-commerce, and consumer trends in Korea, updated continuously by our newsroom.
Nestled in the upmarket suburb of Dogok, Seoul, sits the newly opened reinvention of Emart’s “Star Super”: “the SSG Food Market”, designed by Landini Associates. Emart is the leading business of the Shinsegae group, the largest retailer in South Korea,…
SsangYong Motor, the Korean unit of Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra, said Thursday its net losses narrowed for the October-December period from a year earlier on a strengthened lineup. Net losses reached 3.99 billion won ($3.59 million) in the fourth…
Korean Air Lines said Tuesday it swung to a net loss in 2018 from a year earlier due to hefty foreign-exchange losses. The Korean flag carrier posted a net loss of 167.59 billion won ($150 million), after a net profit of 801.9 billion won a year earlier. As…
SK Innovation, Korea’s largest oil refiner, said Thursday that its earnings sank 21 percent last year on lower oil prices and less demand for petrochemical goods. Net profit reached 1.69 trillion won last year, compared with a profit of 2.15 trillion won a…
For many in Korea, Lunar New Year is a time to meet relatives and exchange elaborately-packaged gift sets that could contain anything from fruits and raw meat to cans of Spam. But one side effect to this approach to gift giving is the excessive waste –…
Chinese visitor arrivals in South Korea rose 14.9 percent year-on-year in 2018 to 4,789,512, according to new Korea Tourism Organization figures. Chinese arrivals in December 2018 rose 25.2 percent year-on-year. The results confirm a sustained recovery in…
KT Telecop, the security arm under mobile carrier KT, has warned people to be careful leaving their homes empty over the Lunar New Year period. On Tuesday, KT Telecop said most incidents occur during the first day of the holiday period, according to three…
Netflix viewership is growing faster than ever in Korea. According to mobile app tracker WiseApp on Tuesday, 1.27 million Android users in Korea used the Netflix app in December last year. That’s nearly four times, or 274 percent, more than the beginning of…
Major South Korean travel retailer Shinsegae Group is set to launch an in-house developed cosmetics line, Yunjac, into the duty free channel at its Myeong-dong store in the capital city, Seoul. An ambitious sales target has been set for the brand. The opening…
The head of KT, the country’s leading telecommunications provider, outlined the importance of 5G networks in driving innovation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week. KT CEO Hwang Chang-gyu was invited to a meeting of the International…
GM Korea’s union is planning to request further government support for employees who took unpaid leave after the shutdown of the Gunsan manufacturing plant last year. The decision, outlined in a follow-up document detailing a GM Korea union meeting held on…
LG Household & Health Care sold 1 trillion won ($885.2 million) of cosmetics for the first time ever in a quarter, the company said Thursday. In its 2018 fourth quarter, cosmetics sales totaled 1.05 trillion won, an increase of 18.2 percent year on year. It…
Luxury fashion brand Gucci has labelled six international destinations as ‘Gucci Places’ – a list that includes Daelim Museum in Seoul. The Gucci Places were selected by the Italian Fashion House as destinations that “surprise, arouse interest, and inspire a…
SsangYong Motor said Monday it will release a brand new sport utility vehicle in March that will replace its current Korando C SUV. The fresh model, which has been developed under the project name C300, will simply be called the “Korando,” according to the…
Kia Motors announced Monday it has begun rolling out the 2020 model of its Sorento sport-utility vehicle (SUV) for sale. The updated Sorento comes with new safety features applied to all of its diesel trims and a refreshed design. The diesel version of the…
South Korean cosmetics stores that have been the drivers of the ‘K-Beauty’ industry for the past 15 years are facing a crisis, exposing their limitations. The cosmetics industry is undergoing a series of transformations due to decreased demand from China and…
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