Lotte Duty Free Opens 'Vietnam's Largest' Danang City Store... "A Forward Base for the Southeast Asian Duty-Free Market"

Opening of 2,000㎡ Store in Danang City, Vietnam on the 15th
Vietnam's Largest Duty-Free Shop with About 200 Brands
Second New Overseas Store This Year Following Sydney City Store in Australia
Fifth Lotte Duty-Free Store in Vietnam Scheduled for Hanoi City Next Year
CEO Lee Gap: "Competitiveness Increased Through Overseas Expansion Including Danang Store"

Lotte Duty Free opened a downtown duty-free store in Da Nang, Vietnam on the 15th. Interior view of Lotte Duty Free Da Nang Downtown Store (Photo by Lotte Duty Free).

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Yuri] Lotte Duty Free opened the Lotte Duty Free Danang Downtown Store on the 15th in Danang, a central coastal resort city in Vietnam. Following the opening of the Sydney Downtown Store in Australia last May, Lotte Duty Free is accelerating its global business expansion by opening its second overseas new store this year.

Lotte Duty Free entered the Vietnamese duty-free market starting with the Danang Airport Store in 2017. Subsequently, it opened the Nha Trang Cam Ranh Airport Store in 2018 and the Hanoi Airport Store in 2019. The newly opened Danang Downtown Store is Lotte Duty Free’s fourth store in Vietnam and the largest duty-free store in the country.

The Lotte Duty Free Danang Downtown Store is located on the second floor of VVMall, near My Khe Beach in Danang, covering approximately 2,000 square meters (600 pyeong). My Khe Beach is one of the most famous beaches in Vietnam, with a high concentration of luxury resorts, global hotels, casinos, and other tourist commercial facilities, making it highly accessible to tourists. Lotte Duty Free enhanced customer shopping satisfaction by designing the store interior inspired by the characteristics of Danang, including My Khe Beach and palm trees.

Danang is a popular Southeast Asian resort destination that attracted about 3.66 million visitors annually as of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, over 50% of Danang’s tourists are Korean, so Lotte Duty Free stocked a variety of souvenirs popular among Korean tourists in the Vietnamese local brand zone, including Vietnamese pearls, coffee, and food products. About 200 brands are housed in the store, including cosmetics, liquor, jewelry, watches, and fashion accessories. Korean brands such as CheongKwanJang, Sulwhasoo, and Whoo, which are popular among Chinese and Southeast Asian customers, are also present.

According to the Danang Tourism Bureau, the hotel occupancy rate in Danang, which was only 11% last year due to COVID-19, rapidly normalized to nearly 75% in the first half of this year. Lotte Duty Free expects to achieve annual sales exceeding 50 billion KRW at the Danang Downtown Store once the Vietnamese tourism market recovers. The Vietnamese duty-free market size was about 300 billion KRW as of 2019, and with the addition of the Hanoi Downtown Store scheduled to open next year, Lotte Duty Free aims to capture over 60% of the Vietnamese duty-free market share. With the reopening of overseas business this year, Lotte Duty Free now operates 13 stores across six countries.

To commemorate the opening of the Danang Downtown Store, Lotte Duty Free has prepared various events. Until the 31st of next month, customers who purchase more than 1 dollar at the Danang Downtown Store and visit the gift desk will receive a premium Danang spa voucher worth 50,000 KRW. On the Lotte Internet Duty Free website, coupons offering up to 30 dollars discount based on purchase amounts at all Lotte Duty Free Vietnam stores will be issued.

Lee Gap, CEO of Lotte Duty Free, said, "Vietnam is a country with great potential in the tourism industry, and with the opening of the Danang Downtown Store, we plan to strengthen our competitiveness in the Vietnamese and Southeast Asian duty-free markets. As the world’s second-largest duty-free operator, Lotte Duty Free will continue to expand its business scope through ongoing investment and overseas expansion."

Meanwhile, Lotte Duty Free resumed operations at all its overseas stores, which had been temporarily closed due to COVID-19, starting in June. The Sydney Downtown Store in Australia was opened in May. Overseas sales of Lotte Duty Free in the first half of this year increased by nearly 194% compared to the same period last year, and the company recorded profits overseas during the same period. Next year, the company plans to complete the grand opening of the Singapore Changi Airport Store, strengthening the 'LDF Belt' that spans the Asia-Pacific region.

Lotte Duty Free Da Nang Downtown Store Exterior (Photo by Lotte Duty Free).

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