E-commerce platform giant Coupang said Tuesday it has closed its Bucheon logistics center in Gyeonggi Province and conducted disinfection of the facility after at least 10 COVID-19 cases are confirmed to be linked with its employees there. According to the company, it will take additional fumigation measures at the center and also check on around 3,700 employees, which includes workers at the center and also those who visited the center from May 12 to Monday. “We sterilize the products

Starbucks Korea said Tuesday that it has expanded the number of Reserve stores selling Teavana drinks to 52 from 13 amid the growing popularity of tea. According to the coffee chain, sales of tea drinks have grown about 20 percent annually since it launched Teavana here in 2016. Its flagship Honey Ruby Grapefruit Black Tea, rolled out in 2016, is now its third-most-frequently ordered drink, after Americano and caffe latte, among customers in their 20s, Starbucks Korea said. Sales of green te

   South Korean duty-free stores saw their sales drop sharply below the 1 trillion-won ($804 million) mark in April, feeling the pinch of the fallout from the new coronavirus, industry data showed Tuesday. Combined sales of local duty-free shops shrank 9.2 percent on-month to 986.7 billion won last month, according to the data from the Korea Duty Free Shops Association. The number halved from January, the data showed. The number of visitors to duty-free outlets came to around 354,00

South Korean food company Pulmuone said Friday it has completed the construction of Pulmuone Institute of Technology, the first research and development center that has received certification from the US-based Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. According to the company, its new institute received a “Gold” level in LEED, which is one of the widely used green building rating system. Built in the designated biotechnology zone, in Osong, North Chungcheong Province, the R&a

Tmon, an e-commerce platform in South Korea, promised Friday to turn profit this year as it marks its 10th anniversary. With the goal of going public, the firm’s Chief Executive Officer Lee Jin-won revealed his ambition to lead the e-commerce market. “Tmon is a company that has been labeled the most as ‘the industry’s first,’ in Korea’s e-commerce market. We started as the country’s first social-commerce (provider), and now created the title ‘

CEO Luke Jensen describes Korea’s retail market as “early adopter” to online groceries

Cafe24, a South Korean e-commerce solutions company, said Wednesday it has joined Facebook’s new initiative, “Shops,” as a partner. Facebook announced the launch of Shops on Tuesday to allow small businesses to set up a single online store for customers to access on both its platform and Instagram. Cafe24, which provides solutions to create online stores and related services, such as marketing, and logistics, will be working with Facebook in the social media’s new ini

Tmon, an e-commerce platform here, said Monday it would deliver 29.1 million won ($23,625) raised from donations to a teenager suffering from a rare skin disease. To mark this year’s Children’s Day – on May 5 -- Tmon said it partnered with Miral Welfare Foundation, a local nongovernmental organization, to start a social donation campaign on its platform for a teenage patient named Park Jun-seo. The 15-year-old patient has been suffering from an unidentified skin disease, in w

Demand, sales of chicken breasts soar, upping competition among food, home meal replacement companies

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has led to a change in the home appliance consumption trends, with increased popularity of electronics helping household chores and less demand for grooming and beauty-related products, according to the retail industry Sunday. According to Homeplus, a South Korean discount chain, the sales of dishwashers and dish dryers jumped by 36 times in March and April compared to a year earlier. On the list of best-selling products by sales, those machines soared

Once industry-leading dairy firm faces boycott after series of controversies

South Korean liquor maker HiteJinro said Friday it will renew its flagship soju product Chamisul Fresh, lowering the alcoholic content by 0.1 percent to 16.9 percent to match with rival soju brands. Chamisul Fresh is the No. 1 soju brand by sales here. According to the company, the renewed Chamisul Fresh is produced by applying different manufacturing techniques and it will also change part of the package design, to add Environmental Product Declaration mark issued by Korea Environmental Ind

Online shopping surged nearly 12 percent from a year earlier in March, data showed Wednesday, an apparent outcome of the new coronavirus outbreak that forced people to stay home. The value of online transactions came to about 12.58 trillion won ($10.3 billion) in the month, up 11.8 percent from the same month last year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The increase followed a 24.5 percent on-year spike the previous month. The sharp increase in March was largely attributed to the

Retailers roll out themed goods as established brands aim to refresh identities

After COVID-19 dampened consumer sentiment for the first quarter, retailers are pinning their hopes on Family Month and are rolling out various promotions to get consumers to open their wallets in May. May is usually a good month for the retail industry because of three holidays that tend to increase consumer spending on gifts for loved ones and teachers. Tuesday is Children’s Day, Friday is Parents’ Day and Teachers’ Day is May 15. To ease the burden on consumers amid th