PyeongChang 2018 to Open 1st Official Shop This Week

1 min readUpdated May 28, 2025May 30, 20171:48 AM

In this article (5)

The first official shop of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games will open in the South Korean capital this week, selling licensed merchandise associated with the international sporting event, local organizers said Thursday.

The PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) said the official merchandise store of the games will open to the public Friday at Lotte Department Store’s Myeongdong branch in central Seoul.

The store, run by South Korean retail giant Lotte Group, also one of the sponsors for the PyeongChang Games, will sell products related with both the Olympics and the Paralympics in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul. The POCOG said some 300 items, including stuffed animals of the PyeongChang Games mascots, Bandabi and Soohorang, are currently available for sale, but the number of products will double by the end of June and reach 2,000 by October.

The POCOG said the opening ceremony for the official store will take place Sunday, featuring its honorary ambassador and speed skater Park Seung-hi, as well as other South Korean celebrities.

The POCOG said two more official PyeongChang 2018 stores will open next month at Lotte’s department store and duty-free shop in Seoul.

The PyeongChang Winter Olympics will kick off Feb. 8 next year for a 17-day run.

AdvertisementAdvertise with usMobile 320×100

What this means

The PyeongChang 2018 organising committee's swift physical store rollout with Lotte, a major sponsor and retail giant, is a sound strategy to capitalise on event-related merchandise. Unlike Panpuri's broader 16-store Asian expansion or Tiffany & Co.'s singular café opening, this move focuses intensely on a finite sales window. The established partnership with Lotte mitigates operational risks, using existing retail infrastructure to quickly scale product availability from 300 to 2,000 items. This rapid physical presence, echoing Shaver Shop's aggressive store openings, pressures online-only competitors and counterfeiters. The main risk is inventory management for such a short event cycle. Watch the final merchandise count at the end of October.

Minjun Park · Retail News Asia newsroom

Questions & Answers

Which company will operate the first official PyeongChang 2018 store?

The South Korean retail giant Lotte Group will run the store. They are also a sponsor for the PyeongChang Games.

Where is the first official merchandise store located?

The first official store will open at Lotte Department Store’s Myeongdong branch in central Seoul.

How many products will initially be available, and how will this number change?

Initially, some 300 items will be for sale. This number will double by the end of June and reach 2,000 by October.

When will the other official PyeongChang 2018 stores open?

Two more official PyeongChang 2018 stores will open next month. They will be located at Lotte’s department store and duty-free shop in Seoul.

Reader pulse

Is this a smart retail move for PyeongChang 2018?

24,163 votes so far