Shinsegae's heiress and Lotte's ambassador headline K-culture push for booming foreign spending
Shinsegae Department Store has no formal ambassador, but Annie of Allday Project, K-pop's first known chaebol scion, has served as its de facto face since her debut last year. Lacking any such birthright, Lotte Department Store recently signed its own poster child: Blackpink's Jennie.
Lotte's ambassador deal, unveiled in late September, marks its first advertising model in nearly a decade — Actress Shin Min-a last fronted Lotte in 2017 — and signals a bid to rejuvenate its image as a younger, more sophisticated brand with global appeal.
"By combining our ambassador's global influence with Lotte Department Store's brand value, we will widen our reach to customers worldwide," said Lotte Department Store CEO Jung Hyun-seok.
Lotte launches its one-year campaign with Jennie in October, celebrating each customer's individual style. The ads will run at tourist hubs such as Incheon Airport and Seoul Station as well as at Lotte's four stores in Vietnam and Indonesia.
Shinsegae, meanwhile, needed no contract to showcase Annie, the eldest daughter of Chung Yoo-kyung, chair of Shinsegae Inc., the group's department store arm.
Her group's new single has played on the giant billboard outside the company's Myeong-dong flagship since late September and will run through Oct. 18. Shinsegae said the screening is part of the billboard's regular K-pop lineup, with no personal ties involved.
More tourists, fiercer rivalry
Until recently, celebrity-fronted campaigns had all but vanished from department stores, which turned to premium branding and found no single star could embody their sprawl of fashion, luxury, beauty and food brands.
However, rising foreign traffic has flipped the script, industry observers say. Tourists now visit department stores not only for luxury brands but for a taste of Korean culture.
"Foreign tourists are multiplying fast, and reaching overseas customers matters more than ever," one industry official noted. "As stores become spaces for culture and lifestyle, star power with global reach is valuable again."
Foreign visitors spent 14.02 trillion won ($10.5 billion) by card from January through August, up 48.5 percent on-year, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Nowhere does the contest burn hotter than Myeong-dong, where Lotte and Shinsegae are racing to turn their flagships into cultural landmarks. Lotte has opened a K-fashion hall that draws most of its sales from tourists, while Shinsegae has packed K-pop goods, traditional snacks and fashion onto a single floor.
International shoppers now account for nearly 30 percent of sales at both Myeong-dong flagships, almost double the 15 percent share each held in 2024.
The rivalry also plays out on media walls. Shinsegae draws crowds with K-pop and heritage-themed videos on its giant screen, and Lotte will unveil an even larger one in December.
Buoyed by foreign traffic, both chains — Lotte with 31 stores in Korea and Shinsegae with 13 — are climbing a steep growth curve.
As of Tuesday, Lotte's foreign sales for the year topped 1 trillion won, a first for any Korean department store, with its Myeong-dong flagship alone generating about 520 billion won
In the first half, Lotte's sales to international shoppers reached roughly 640 billion won, ahead of Shinsegae's 580 billion won.
"Foreign customers enjoy global luxury brands while seeking fashion, food and culture found only in Korea," Lotte Department Store noted in a statement.
The tourist spending boom has also lifted the bottom line, and both retailers posted strong gains in revenue and profit.
Lotte's department store division posted record second-quarter revenue of 891.2 billion won as operating profit surged 84 percent to 119.7 billion won. Shinsegae's department store arm grew revenue 17.5 percent to a record 738.5 billion won, and its operating profit jumped 53.5 percent to 108.8 billion won.
The first half followed suit. Lotte lifted operating profit 54.8 percent to 295.9 billion won on revenue of 1.69 trillion won. Shinsegae grew operating profit 39.7 percent to 249.9 billion won on revenue of 1.48 trillion won.
minmin@heraldcorp.com
