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The 16,500sq m store only soft-opened on December 24 2015, as previously reported and already handles 600 brands including luxury, cosmetic, fashion, food, confectionery, luxury watches and jewellery. The official opening took place on March 25 2016.
Speaking to DFNIonline during a tour of the five-story store, located in the I’Park mall in Yongsan station in central Seoul and the largest in Korea, an HDC Shilla Duty Free marketing representative said: “We can confirm the size of the store will be increasing in two or three years with an emphasis on luxury fashion and watches. At the moment we have no further details.”
With the new 2000-room Accor Ambassador hotel due to open in Yongsan in 2017, linking the duty-free store and hotel to further boost sales is a possibility. “It is our aim to link the hotel and duty-free shop,” he confirmed.
Meanwhile, the representative also confirmed the opening of the store’s new online duty-free shop last week. “Online sales are increasing in the Korean duty-free market so this will help raise profit. At present, 70% or 80% of profit from Free Independent Travellers in Korea come from online.”
The representative, who identified Korean cosmetics brands Sulwhasoo and The History of Whoo as top-sellers and strong performance of Korean Cosmetics in general, is not surprised by recent confirmation it will become the first of the new stores awarded new licences last year to host LVMH Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton brands.
DFNIonline understands 20 LVMH brands will open including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Bvlgari, Tag Heur, Givenchy and Marc Jacobs. Construction work is due to begin in the coming months will all shops planned to open by March 2017.
The representative added: “The opening of Louis Vuitton, for example, which is loved by Korean consumers as well as Chinese, will lead to a sharp increase in profit.”
