Reporting and analysis on retail, e-commerce, and consumer trends in Korea, updated continuously by our newsroom.
Japan’s cosmetics exports are on track to surpass 500 billion yen ($4.53 billion) for the first time in 2018, marking a sixth consecutive record year, thanks to Asian tourists who continue to buy these products after returning home. Exports in the…
Samsung Heavy Industries said Monday that it has clinched a deal worth 210 billion won ($189 million) to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier. The contract, with a European shipper, calls for Samsung Heavy to deliver the vessel by March 2021, the…
Large supermarkets are banned from giving or selling plastic shopping bags to customers. The Ministry of Environment announced Monday that it will completely prohibit grocery franchises and supermarkets over 165 square meters (1,776 square feet) from selling…
Korean pharmaceutical companies are entering 2019 with high expectations as several domestic drugs are expected to gain approval from overseas regulators this year. Though the Samsung BioLogics accounting fraud scandal made 2018 a less-than-stellar year for…
Korean Air, the country’s flag carrier, displayed maps with the “Sea of Japan” aboard some its flights rather than the East Sea, the name supported by the Korean government. The Japanese name of the sea, which is opposed by Korea, was found on a number of…
Prosecutors dropped tax evasion and embezzlement charges against Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee on Thursday. The decision was based on the judgment that further investigation into the case was impossible due to Lee’s health issues. The investigation may…
iPhone users are accusing Apple of paying Korean customers less for their trade-ins than the devices are worth, while noting differences between promotions in other countries and those in Korea. If an iPhone owner wants to return an older model when buying a…
Hong Kong Customs has seized more than 1300 items of suspected counterfeit cosmetics after raids on three sites this week. In an anti-counterfeiting operation conducted with the assistance of the trademark owners, customs officers took enforcement action at…
Hyundai Motor Group offered a glimpse of its new concept autonomous car Friday in a short video. The concept car is electric. In the video, the electric car finds its way to a charging station inside a nearby parking lot on its own after the driver gets off…
Woowa Brothers, the operator of the popular food delivery app Baedal Minjok, said Thursday that it succeeded in securing $320 million from major foreign investors including Sequoia Capital, famous for investing in leading tech companies such as Apple and…
LG Household & Health Care’s skin care brand The History of Whoo generated 2 trillion won ($1.79 billion) in sales this year as of Thursday. This is the first time a Korean beauty brand has reached that threshold. The 2018 record is also a 40.8 percent…
The overall retail market in India 2018 stood at Rs 43,251 billion and is forecast to grow by 6.4 percent CAGR in 2018-2023. Retailing in India still predominantly takes place in physical stores and shopping behaviour between urban and rural consumers…
LG U+ said Wednesday that it has demonstrated 10 times faster download times compared to 4G LTE on its 5G network. While 4G LTE offers 133.43 megabits per second download speeds on average, according to data from the Ministry of Science and ICT, LG U+ said it…
Foreign direct investment disbursement in Vietnam reached a record $19.1 billion in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 9.1 percent. However, FDI pledges for new projects, capital supplements and stake acquisitions were down 1.2 percent from a year earlier to…
Things aren’t looking good for beleaguered German automaker BMW, with yet another vehicle reported to have burst into flames on Christmas Day. A BMW 520 sedan caught fire at around 6 p.m. on Tuesday in Gongju, South Chungcheong. Earlier that day at 1 a.m.,…
The government is planning to overhaul the current cost-based alcohol-tax system to a quantity-based system, which may address concerns from local alcohol companies about cheap imported beer. According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on Tuesday,…
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