Shinsegae Ja-ju Growing Offline Amid COVID-19 "Store Count Surpasses 200"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Lifestyle brand Jaju of Shinsegae International is aggressively increasing new offline store openings amid the downturn in offline sales caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is part of a strategy to nurture the lifestyle division as a future growth engine alongside cosmetics.

According to industry sources on the 29th, the number of Jaju's offline stores under Shinsegae International has surpassed 202 (as of the end of the half-year). This is due to an aggressive store expansion policy, with more than 28 new store openings added this year alone. Focusing on new offline store openings amid the collapse of offline channels due to COVID-19 is a mid- to long-term strategy to develop the lifestyle division as one of the main growth pillars.

A Shinsegae International official stated, "The lifestyle-related market has been steadily growing for several years, and we believe its growth potential remains very high," adding, "We will develop the lifestyle division as a core growth engine alongside the cosmetics division."

To this end, they have diversified their distribution channels by increasing store openings from mainly marts to specialty stores, shopping malls, and flagship stores. The plan is to expand overall sales scale through increasing the number of stores and simultaneously strengthen competitiveness both online and offline.

Jaju was reborn through a major brand renewal after acquiring 'Jayeonjuui,' a private brand (PB) of E-Mart, in 2010. The product lineup, initially focused on lifestyle goods such as fashion, kitchenware, and bedding, was expanded in 2012 to include kids, travel lines, body, and aroma products, and later diversified further into home appliances, furniture, and healthcare-related product groups.

In June of last year, Jaju took its first step into overseas markets by opening a store in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A Shinsegae International official said, "If last year was about breaking into overseas markets, this year’s plan is to focus on expanding scale." To this end, Jaju was promoted to an independent business division at the end of last month, establishing a representative system. Lee Seok-gu, former CEO of Starbucks Coffee Korea, was appointed as president and CEO to lead the new business division.

With Jaju’s independence, the business structure changed from three divisions?domestic fashion, cosmetics, and fashion lifestyle?to a four-division system. As of the end of last year, Jaju’s sales scale was approximately 240 billion KRW, making it the largest single division in terms of sales proportion (about 17%). Sales nearly doubled from 130 billion KRW at the time of acquisition over ten years. The mid- to long-term goal is to achieve 1 trillion KRW in sales from this single division alone.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.