Today's General Meeting: Shinsegae, E-Mart, Hyundai Department Store... 'Future-Oriented Retail' Strategies (Comprehensive)

Shinsegae's 'Overwhelming No.1 Store in Commercial Area'
Emphasizing New Lifestyle Offering
Emart Strengthens Online-Offline Collaboration System
"Seriously Considering eBay Korea Acquisition"
Hyundai Department Store Focuses on Differentiated Malls Over Volume
Reviewing 1-2 Additional Possible Locations

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Yuri] As the 'Shareholders' Meeting Day' in the distribution industry reaches its peak, Shinsegae, Emart, and Hyundai Department Store, which held their shareholders' meetings on the 24th, have announced their commitment to 'future-oriented retail.' They acknowledged that the online and offline distribution markets are undergoing a period of drastic change due to Coupang's listing on the New York Stock Exchange and the sale of eBay Korea, and unanimously declared their intention to 'turn crisis into opportunity.' Each company plans to prominently feature experiential content that cannot be accessed online, while actively linking with online channels and exploring new businesses to secure future growth engines.

◆Shinsegae Strengthens 'No.1 Store in New Experience Commercial District' Strategy

Shinsegae plans to strengthen its 'overwhelming No.1 store in the commercial district strategy' to create a differentiated shopping environment. Cha Jung-ho, CEO of Shinsegae, emphasized at the shareholders' meeting held in Jung-gu, Seoul, "We will provide customers with a new lifestyle by reflecting regional characteristics in our content and attracting exclusive, scarce brands that can only be found at that location."

The Daejeon Shinsegae Expo store, scheduled to open in the second half of this year, is planned to be a complex space where customers can experience science, culture, and nature, while boasting the largest luxury lineup in the commercial district. They will also enhance category expertise at the Gangnam store, introduce new customer experience facilities, develop a luxury specialty hall at the main store, and renovate the Gyeonggi store.

Shinsegae believes that the value of offline stores is expanding in terms of customer experience, aiming to go beyond simply connecting consumers and products to enable customers to enjoy new experiences, entertainment, and services offline. To provide an 'experience beyond shopping,' they plan to intensify the art sales business within department stores, which began last year. To this end, they added 'exhibition, sale, brokerage, rental of artworks, and related consulting services' to their business objectives. The 'Art Space' opened last year at the Gangnam store houses over 120 pieces including paintings, photographs, objects, and sculptures, with a curator on site to introduce and assist customers in purchasing artworks. Works by veteran artist Kim Chang-ryeol, mid-career artists Ha Tae-im, Choi Young-wook, Cha Gyu-seon, and emerging artist Kim Sun-woo have been actively sold, gaining word-of-mouth popularity. As a result, luxury sales on the 3rd floor increased by 37% compared to the same period last year within just one month. Shinsegae also held the 'Blossom Art Fair' at the main store this month.

Alongside this, they are focusing on expanding online-to-offline (O2O) services, building commerce platforms, creating contactless stores, and enhancing digital shopping experiences. They also plan to develop Shinsegae's unique 'future retail format' through online businesses such as SSG.com and partnerships with new business types.

◆Emart: Survival Condition is Online-Offline Collaboration... Serious Consideration of eBay Korea Acquisition

Kang Hee-seok, CEO of Emart, emphasized at the shareholders' meeting held at the headquarters in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, "We will boldly strengthen the online-offline collaboration system." Kang said, "In an environment where growth is concentrated on online channels and rapid oligopolization is occurring around major business sites, survival requires rapid growth of online channels and securing differentiated competitiveness. To this end, we will organically collaborate to grow online channels by expanding online PP (Picking & Packing) centers within stores, jointly planning online and offline products, and strengthening live commerce."

Amid these considerations, Emart recently participated in the preliminary bidding for the acquisition of eBay Korea, which was recently put up for sale. Regarding the acquisition, Kang said, "Although specific plans for participation in the main bidding have not been finalized, we are seriously considering it." He explained, "Continuous growth of Emart in the rapidly changing e-commerce environment is the way to return value to shareholders. In this context, we are seriously considering whether acquiring eBay Korea would be helpful."

Kang also announced that they are pursuing strategic partnerships with external companies in various ways to enable flexible market responses and business model innovation. A recent example is the 250 billion KRW equity swap between Shinsegae Group, including Emart, and Naver. Emart is currently discussing specific business models to expand grocery sales using Naver's channel.

◆Hyundai Department Store Focuses on Differentiated Malls Rather Than Volume... Promotes 'Vision 2030'

Hyundai Department Store presented a different online strategy from Lotte and Shinsegae. Rather than focusing on increasing volume, they are internally reviewing nurturing differentiated malls. Kim Hyung-jong, CEO of Hyundai Department Store, said at the shareholders' meeting held in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, "The current online policy in the department store industry is an inefficient strategy that causes profitability deterioration by competitively selling department store products at deep discounts." He added, "We will focus on creating synergy by reviewing the integration plan for the online luxury food hall 'Hyundai Food Hall ToHome' and linking online and offline."

He further stated, "For the time being, we are focusing on renewing existing stores and mid-to-long-term strategies while reviewing one or two additional possible locations."

Kim said, "Despite the rapidly changing environment last year, we focused on securing future growth engines through more aggressive investments than usual. Through this, the Pangyo store, opened in 2015, surpassed annual sales of 1 trillion KRW in just five years, the shortest period among domestic department stores. Following premium outlets in Daejeon and Namyangju, we successfully opened The Hyundai Seoul, the largest department store in Seoul located in Yeouido, attracting great attention from customers and the market." He added, "We are also strengthening online and digital capabilities in line with the normalized non-face-to-face lifestyle."

Hyundai Department Store emphasized that it will steadily pursue 'Vision 2030,' the group's blueprint for the next 10 years, aiming to open the era of 40 trillion KRW in sales by 2030. Hyundai Department Store Group plans to establish tailored growth strategies for its three core business portfolios: distribution, fashion, and living/interior, and to enter future businesses considering synergy and growth potential with existing businesses.

Hyundai Department Store added 'social education business and lifelong education business' to its business objectives, recognizing the need to operate cultural centers using online platforms due to the prolonged impact of COVID-19. Hyundai Department Store stated, "Department stores have become new cultural spaces offering various service facilities such as movie theaters, cultural centers, and famous restaurants beyond simple sales facilities," and "we will transform into an online-offline life platform that provides differentiated value to customers' lives."

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