Hyundai Department Store to Open First Overseas Official Store in Tokyo... Expanding Global Business to Taiwan and Hong Kong

[Financial News] Hyundai Department Store's K-fashion brand export platform business, 'The Hyundai Global', will open an official offline store in Japan. It is the first time for a domestic department store to showcase a regular store overseas instead of a pop-up store. Hyundai Department Store plans to expand its overseas business not only to Japan but also to Taiwan and Hong Kong, starting with the first The Hyundai Global store in Shibuya, Tokyo, in September. It is noteworthy whether it will become a new growth model for department stores struggling due to the prolonged domestic economic downturn.
Hyundai Department Store announced on the 19th that The Hyundai Global Retail Shop will open on the 4th floor of Parco Shibuya in Tokyo on the 19th of next month. It is the first regular overseas store of The Hyundai Global. Although domestic department stores have operated pop-up stores introducing K-brands in Japan, this is the first time to open a regular store. In the first half of next year, a large flagship store will be additionally opened on Omotesando shopping street in Tokyo, and a total of five retail shops will be opened in Japan over the next five years.
The opening of The Hyundai Global offline store is part of Hyundai Department Store's strategy to expand its global business and enhance its business model. Since May last year, Hyundai Department Store has been developing The Hyundai Global business, discovering competitive K-brands and operating stores in famous overseas distribution channels. So far, a total of 43 brand pop-up stores have been operated in Japan.
The newly introduced The Hyundai Global Retail Shop has evolved in terms of location strategy and operation method compared to the existing pop-up store format, as it is a regular store. Hyundai Department Store said, "It will be a turning point in securing a stable distribution base and building a long-term brand image by establishing its own distribution network."
For local marketing, Hyundai Department Store made a strategic investment of 30 billion won in May in Mediquarters, a startup whose main business is a Japanese fashion online mall. Mediquarters has been operating the online fashion mall 'NUGU', which has more than 1 million subscribers in Japan since 2020. The first The Hyundai Global regular store in Japan, which will be introduced at Parco Shibuya with Mediquarters, will be operated in a 'rotation method' where brands change every 1-2 months. The first brand is 'Trimmingbird', which gained fame by being worn by K-pop idol singers, and will introduce its representative products until October 16.
The second store, scheduled to open in the first half of next year, is Omotesando, a street connecting Harajuku and Aoyama in Tokyo, adjacent to the core commercial district of Shibuya, and is densely packed with J-fashion stores and global luxury brands. The flagship store to be located here will consist of about 10 K-brands that have been verified for competitiveness among global MZ customers and align with Hyundai Department Store's growth potential-focused curation philosophy.
Hyundai Department Store plans to sequentially secure stores in key commercial cities in Japan, starting with Tokyo. To help more K-brands enter Japan, The Hyundai Global Hall (tentative name) will also open in the NUGU online mall as early as this year.
Hyundai Department Store is actively pursuing its business in Japan because its unique K-brand sourcing capabilities are receiving great responses locally. In fact, as a result of operating The Hyundai Global pop-up store introducing 23 K-brands at Parco Shibuya last year, 12 brands achieved sales of over 100 million won, and the average sales of the top 5 brands recorded 313 million won. Although the operation period was only about a week, it surpassed the mid-tier regular stores of Japanese department stores, which are at the level of 100 million to 200 million won per month.
Hyundai Department Store plans to officially expand its The Hyundai Global business overseas to Taiwan and Hong Kong based on its business expansion in Japan. A pop-up store introducing a large number of K-brands is scheduled for the Taiwan market from October to December.
A Hyundai Department Store official said, "To systematically expand The Hyundai Global business, we established a dedicated organization 'The Hyundai Global Team' within the fashion business division last May," adding, "We will diversify the overseas distribution model based on brand sourcing capabilities and know-how, leading the globalization of K-brands."


wonder@fnnews.com Jeong Sang-hee Reporter