Large Supermarkets Succeed with Experiential Stores... Strong Customer Attraction Effect

Homeplus: Swimming Pool and Kids Cafe Popularity
Emart Wolgye Branch Sales Increase by 22.8%
Lotte Mart Focuses on Specialized Stores by Category

Homeplus Masan Branch Monster Park.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chunhan] Large supermarkets are betting their survival on experiential stores to counter the e-commerce offensive. They aim for a kind of ‘shower effect’ by introducing various tenants (rental stores) to encourage visits to offline stores.

According to Homeplus on the 26th, the children’s swimming pool ‘Angel Crew Kids Swimming,’ which opened on the 20th of last month at the Incheon Nonhyeon branch with an area of 500㎡ (about 150 pyeong), exceeded its sales target by 210% within a month. Currently, 50% of the total 240 classes are in operation, and all those classes are fully booked. The kids caf? ‘Monster Park,’ which opened on the 1st of this month at the Gyeongnam Masan branch, also exceeded its target by 279%. A Homeplus official said, “Customer visits, which had slowed due to COVID-19, are continuing, bringing in not only shopping mall users but also accompanying customers.”

Homeplus plans to renovate 17 stores this year. In particular, it is focusing on introducing experiential tenants within offline shopping malls that had long been vacant due to closures caused by the COVID-19 impact. Originally, Angel Crew Kids Swimming was a large shabu-shabu buffet restaurant space. However, due to the COVID-19 impact, that store closed, and Homeplus attracted a children’s swimming pool operator. This decision was based on the fact that the Incheon Nonhyeon branch is located in a large residential area between the Incheon Namdong Industrial Complex and Sorae Port, where demand for children’s swimming in the commercial district has increased, and the swimming pool would help attract customers. Monster Park was also established in a space that had been vacant for over a year since November 2020, with an area of 660㎡ (about 200 pyeong). It is a family-type kids caf? concept with unlimited usage time under the operating policy of ‘Play until you’re exhausted,’ equipped with differentiated playground equipment such as air bounces, gaining high popularity.

Emart and Lotte Mart also plan to renovate about 10 and 20 stores respectively this year. Emart focuses on transforming into experiential, customer-tailored, and information-providing stores. They introduce various tenant stores ranging from culture and entertainment to food and fashion brands in the space secured by compressing the non-food section. The Wolgye branch, renovated in 2020, significantly expanded the tenant store area from the previous 3,636㎡ (1,100 pyeong) to 13,553㎡ (4,100 pyeong). Representative examples receiving good responses include ‘Arc N Book,’ which combines books, lifestyle shops, and dining spaces, and ‘Bounce Trampoline,’ a playground for children. As a result, the Wolgye branch’s sales increased by 22.8% compared to the previous year. Lotte Mart focuses on specialty stores in fields such as wine, pets, living, and health & beauty centered around Zeta Flex, which was introduced on the 23rd of last month. The Zeta Flex Jamsil branch saw sales increase by 70.6% in the first three days after opening compared to the previous year. This is an overwhelming figure compared to the average growth rate (22.8%) of recently renovated stores such as Ansan and Cheomdan branches.

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