Lotte Mart at Seoul Station redesigned to lure foreign shoppers

South Korea’s Lotte Mart reopened its hypermarket at Seoul train station on Thursday after a four-month renovation to attract more foreign customers. It has expanded the food section, created a zone for products favored by foreigners and set up stores specialized in wine, pet food and toys. The redesigned hypermarket is Lotte Mart’s second flagship store dubbed Zettaplex, following the first one in Seoul’s Jamsil area that opened in December 2021. Zettaplex aims to supply all the items needed for living and deliver great customer experiences that are only available in physical stores. The renovated space has expanded its grocery section on the second floor by 25% to provide more organic and premium food. The third floor area includes Bottle Bunker, where 4,000 wines are available for tasting and sales, pet supplies shop Colioli and global toy retailer Toys “R” Us. Lotte Mart at Seoul train station, a gateway to the capital, has been popular among foreigners. Shoppers from overseas contributed 50% of the entire sales in 2018, before the pandemic breakout. Some 35% of the sales of the branch between January and August this year came from foreign customers.The renovated hypermarket created a special area that sells Korean snacks, instant coffee and wrapped nuts, some of the products beloved by foreign visitors.Lotte Mart and Lotte Super, supermarket affiliates of Korea’s No. 6 conglomerate Lotte Group, aim to be the country’s top grocery operators and step up their premium food categories.The two firms have been integrating their product sourcing systems since last year as many of the items and partner companies overlapped. The integration has led to the companies’ enhanced performance, they said. Lotte Mart posted 2.9 billion won ($2.2 million) in operating profit in the first half, nearly tripling the year. Lotte Super swung to the black with 13 billion won operating profit in the first half.By Hun-Hyoung [email protected] Kim edited this article.