Korean Clothing Industry: Chinese Tourists Become Korean Clothing Stores Savior

According to reports, the newspaper reporters arrived in Seoul on 4 th afternoon, the Lotte Department Store in central district. Women's wear Store. Because it's weekdays, and it rains, so there are not many customers. But customers who dress their shopping bags with their arms carefully and dress carefully in the store look at them from time to time. Most of them are Chinese.

Because of the recession, consumer psychology has shrunk, businesses have launched various discount promotions, but department stores are still sluggish. In this case, the consumption of foreign tourists is rising. According to Lotte Department store, the total consumption volume of foreigners in the recent sales volume is about 10%.

The highest proportion of foreign customers' consumption is clothing. Clothing is an important category for department stores to generate revenue, accounting for more than 60% of total sales in department stores. Recently, however, the sales performance of clothing has declined sharply, which has become the main reason for the decline of department stores' sales. The sales of women's wear and men's wear decreased by 1.2% and 0.6% respectively last month compared with the same period last year. In the same period, the sales volume of men's wear and women's wear in modern department stores also decreased by 6%, while the sales of women's clothing in New World Department Stores decreased by 17%. Therefore, although the fresh food sector set a 41% growth rate, the total sales volume decreased by 0.9%.

On the contrary, foreign tourists Clothing consumption The amount is increasing. The industry even said, "save the department store clothing stores are foreign tourists". According to the new world head office, half of the top ten brands of foreign tourists (excluding luxury goods) are clothing based on sales volume. "The consumption of some brands accounts for 30% of the total sales," said the manager of the women's clothing store in Hyundai Department store.

Chinese tourists are especially fond of department stores. clothing 。 "O2nd, Obzee and other brands have entered China's large department stores or high-end shopping centers," the new world department store official said. In Korean department stores, the price is only half that of China, and it can see new products ahead of time, so it is very popular among Chinese customers. According to the analysis, "SOLID HOMME" and other Korean men's wear brands are different from European brands. They are favored by Chinese customers according to the design of Orient products.

Department store clothing stores, which are plagued by sluggish sales, are starting to concentrate on hospitality for foreign tourists. "Not long ago, when Chinese tourists bought clothes, they mostly bought them according to their models, but recently, most of them bought their products according to their own eyes, so we conducted related training for salesmen, asking them to ask more about the wishes of Chinese customers and promote their products according to their preferences," said Xu, head of the women's group of the Lotte Department store.

In order to attract foreign customers, department stores are also actively using various publicity methods. Foreign tourists from the modern department store, gull Ting shop last month, invited Korean tourists to watch Hansung concert. They held a cultural experience such as trying on Hanfu and learning traditional etiquette. In order to make up for the disadvantage far away from the open hole that foreigners often visit, the shop also works together with travel agencies to attract customers.

In the recession, in the first 7 months of this year, the consumption of foreign customers in the Galleria department store increased by 60%. The hotel, like hotels, implemented the guest service system of one to one entertaining customers, and began offering foreign exchange settlement services in 5 currencies, such as US dollars, Japanese yen and euros, from last month.