Department Store's Men's Select Shop... 'Luxury Strategy' Worked

67% of 'Smalte' Buyers in October Are Women
Second Middle East Branch to Open in Early Next Year
Suwon and Premium Outlet Paju Branches Scheduled to Open

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Cha] Lotte Department Store's premium men's accessories select shop 'Smalt,' first introduced at the Guri branch in October, has been found on the 6th to have high gift demand, especially among female customers.

Smalt is a specialized store newly launched by Lotte Department Store after more than a year of preparation, reflecting the recent high demand for luxury men's accessories. It offers over 500 products from about 50 brands, ranging from luxury brands like Gucci, Bottega Veneta, and Thom Browne to living accessories and stationery for creating a personalized home office, such as Hay and Arne Jacobsen.

Smalt has recorded sales more than 90% higher than the previous year's sales at the former store, and analysis of purchasing customers shows that 46% are first-time visitors to the Guri branch, indicating a significant effect in attracting new customers. Notably, 67% of the purchasing customers are women. This suggests that many female customers are buying gifts for men, and it has been confirmed that about half of the in-store customers visit in pairs of men and women.

In response, Lotte Department Store's Smalt is offering a variety of popular items to ease the gift concerns of customers during the Christmas season. The most preferred gift items in the store are wallets and clutches, and the watch zone is also gaining popularity. The watch zone sells products from eight brands, including Oris, Omega, and Seiko. In particular, the German high-end watch brands Junghans and Nomos, introduced offline for the first time in Korea, are attracting the attention of watch enthusiasts.

Recommended Christmas gift items from Smalt include the Nomos Tangente 38 watch priced at 2.69 million KRW, Johnstone of Elgin muffler at 389,000 KRW, and Thom Browne card wallet at 409,000 KRW. Additionally, following the recent trend of remote work, home office design products such as the Lumio mini lamp at 250,000 KRW and Otto wooden pencil at 10,000 KRW are also gaining popularity as gifts.

During the Christmas gift season, Smalt offers free premium gift wrapping services to purchasing customers and, considering the high number of female customers, presents unisex items alongside men's accessories.

Yeobyeonghee, Chief Buyer (Senior Product Planner) at Lotte Department Store, said, “We focused not only on product composition but also on store interior and gift wrapping corners to target the female heart that wants to buy stylish gifts for men.” She added, “Customer response has been very positive, and we plan to open additional stores starting with the Middle East branch in the first half of next year, followed by Suwon and Premium Outlet Paju branches.”

Meanwhile, Smalt was first introduced at the Guri branch in October as a spin-off store of 'Lotte Tops,' Lotte Department Store's overseas direct sourcing luxury select shop. A spin-off is a strategy to launch a separate brand for product categories with excellent sales performance within a store. Currently, Lotte Tops operates four stores of 'Sneaker Bar,' a sneaker specialty select shop, and one Smalt store.

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