"Everyone Wearing Striped Shirts Enjoying the Wally Festival" [Kim Yuri's Hipple Hot Item]

The Hidden Contributor Behind 'The Hyundai Seoul' MZ Playground
'Space' Advocating 'Retail Therapy' Beyond MZ-Targeted Content
The Highlight Is the 3,300㎡ Indoor Park 'Sounds Forest'
Rest + Attractions + Entertainment... Dwell Time 9 Times That of Fashion Stores

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] On the first weekend of July, ‘The Hyundai Seoul’ in Yeouido, Seoul was filled with people wearing striped shirts. Their destination was the 5th floor ‘Sounds Forest,’ where more than 100 ‘Wally’ characters dressed in the same striped shirts were exhibited. Those cosplaying as Wally took certification photos in a line with a 15-meter-tall Wally sculpture in this entire floor covered with trees and grass, designed like a park. They also enjoyed experiential games and band parade performances themed around Wally. They participated in the ‘10,000 Steps Walking Challenge’ while wearing Wally costumes, exploring various parts of The Hyundai Seoul. Hyundai Department Store estimated that over the two days of that weekend (July 2-3), about 300,000 customers enjoyed the Sounds Forest ‘Wally Village,’ with more than 60% of them belonging to the 20s and 30s age group. Thanks to the Wally festival at Sounds Forest, the number of visitors to The Hyundai Seoul during this period increased by 30% compared to the same period last year.

Citizens who participated in the 'Wally Challenge' held at The Hyundai Seoul Sounds Forest are taking a commemorative photo.

The experimental attempt of The Hyundai Seoul, a department store without the word ‘department store’ in its name, is primarily credited to ‘content’ targeting the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z), but the most frequently mentioned factor in the retail industry is ‘space.’ The Hyundai Seoul’s concept of ‘retail therapy’ (healing through shopping), which dedicates half of its total operating area (89,100㎡) to indoor landscaping and customer rest areas, transformed Yeouido, previously a commercial desert as a typical office town, into a core commercial district in Seoul bustling with crowds even on weekends. The enjoyment derived from the space itself became the decisive driving force attracting visitors, and this has become a level of competitiveness for the department store itself that is different from the competition for content tenants.

The highlight of The Hyundai Seoul’s retail therapy is Sounds Forest, a 3,300㎡ (1,000 pyeong) area planted with natural grass, trees, and flowers. This space serves as a resting area before and after shopping while offering various attractions. Here, not only department store-level customer participation events like the recent Wally Village but also luxury brand pop-up events and movie promotional events are held in diverse ways. Since its opening in February last year, the average time customers spent in Sounds Forest over one year was 37 minutes, more than nine times longer than the average stay time at The Hyundai Seoul’s fashion brands (4 minutes).

These factors played a decisive role in establishing The Hyundai Seoul as a ‘playground for the MZ generation.’ So far, about 40 million customers have visited The Hyundai Seoul, with 60% of purchasing customers being under their 30s. More than half of the total sales came from a wide-area commercial zone located more than 10 km away from The Hyundai Seoul. Among them, the proportion of customers under 30 reached 75%.

The Hyundai Seoul, Sounds Forest.

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