[Retail Revolution] Large Supermarkets Become 'Weekend Playgrounds'... Evolving into 'Our Neighborhood Shopping Malls'

"Three-Dimensional Experience and Enjoyment" Strategy... Differentiation from E-Commerce
Emart Wolgye Branch Boosts Popular Restaurants + Culture & Entertainment
Lotte Mart Zeta Plex Jamsil Branch Gains Popularity with Bottle Bunker
Homeplus Targets Market with 'Mega Food Market' This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] Following department stores, large supermarkets are also transforming themselves into 'destinations' in their own right. Once places to quickly stop by for evening side dishes, they are evolving into spaces that offer 'multifaceted experiences and enjoyment.' The core direction of the three major large supermarkets currently undergoing nationwide store renovations is to transform into stores that 'customers want to visit and stay longer in.' While e-commerce emphasizes low prices and convenient shopping, large supermarkets are focusing on the strategy of providing 'enjoyment through experiences' that e-commerce cannot offer.

Emart’s Wolgye branch, renovated in May 2020, promotes itself as 'Our Neighborhood Starfield.' It strengthens its selection of ultra-fresh foods that customers want to see and buy in person to satisfy their senses, while also attracting popular restaurants and adding attractions and entertainment to provide the same enjoyment as visiting a shopping mall. In particular, to keep customers who come to spend leisure time longer, it has focused on curating popular restaurants and cultural and entertainment stores. The 'Wolgye Gourmet Street,' featuring eateries popular among the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z), has made the scene of 'going to the supermarket for weekend dining out' familiar. The bookstore 'Arc N Book,' which handles children’s books, English books, and magazines, and 'Bounce Trampoline,' offering sports activities such as trampolining, zip-lining, and climbing, have also been introduced.

This transformation has led to an increase in customer dwell time. The proportion of customers parking for more than an hour at Emart Wolgye increased from 28.6% in 2020 to about 40% last year. Sales also rose accordingly. Last year, Emart Wolgye’s sales grew by 22.8% compared to the previous year. The situation is similar for the 18 stores renovated last year. All achieved double-digit sales growth compared to the previous year after renovation. After reopening in July last year, the Icheon branch’s sales rose by 30.4%, and the Seogwipo branch’s sales increased by 25.7% after opening a month earlier in June. The growth trend continues this year as well. Sales at the Icheon and Seogwipo branches from January to February increased by 25.8% and 12.9%, respectively, compared to the previous year. Starting with Wolgye in 2020, Emart has remodeled 9 stores and 18 stores last year into 'future-type stores.' Emart plans to renovate more than 10 stores this year as well.

A representative example of the future-type store envisioned by Lotte Mart is the Zeta Flex Jamsil branch, which debuted last December. It has achieved success by significantly enhancing the lively fresh food section and innovatively dedicating 70% of the first-floor area to 'Bottle Bunker,' a wine specialty store. This change aims to 'encourage customers to visit and stay longer.' Zeta Flex is currently recording sales more than double compared to the previous year. Especially, 'Bottle Bunker,' which recorded sales over seven times higher (600 million KRW) than the previous year during the first three days after opening, had more than half (53%) of its visitors from the 20s and 30s age group. The news that customers can taste about 80 types of wine using the 'Tasting Tap' and that rare wines and whiskeys are available spread through social media, causing an 'open run' phenomenon (lining up before the store opens) rarely seen in supermarkets. Based on this success, Lotte Mart plans to expand 'Bottle Bunker' stores, opening a second branch this month at Gwangju Sangmu.

Homeplus is expanding customer dwell time with its 'Mega Food Market.' It fills more than half of the store with fresh foods, a strength of offline stores, and significantly enhances the 'customer experience' by offering healthy bread, coffee made with beans from famous cafes, salads, and more. The recently opened Ganseok branch differentiates itself by placing a bakery and salad corner right at the store entrance. Sales of healthy bread at the 'Montblancier' bakery in this location surged 725% compared to the previous year from the 17th of last month to the 6th of this month. Homeplus has put special emphasis on the 'Dining Street,' a zone specialized in ready-to-eat meals, gathering refrigerated, frozen, and room-temperature convenience foods in one place. By enabling 'one-stop shopping' where all types of convenience foods can be compared at a glance, meal kit sales alone surged 1170% compared to the previous year during the first four days after opening, receiving a positive response. Homeplus has reopened the Incheon Ganseok branch, as well as Cheongna, Songdo, Jakjeon, Inha, Gajwa, and Seoul World Cup branches as 'Mega Food Markets.' It plans to focus its efforts on creating 10 more such stores this year.

Experts predict that large supermarkets will continue to approach consumers with a differentiated strategy that overcomes the fatigue accumulated from e-commerce’s 'shopping task completion' by making 'the visit itself an enjoyable leisure time.' Professor Eunhee Lee of Inha University’s Department of Consumer Studies said, "Online grocery shopping is still not multidimensional," adding, "Large supermarkets will increase differentiation points by providing consumers with an 'upgraded shopping enjoyment' that they cannot get online."

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