Came to Shop for Clothes, Ended Up Singing and Getting an Eye Exam... Inside Musinsa Megastore Seongsu [Reportage]

Grand Opening on the 24th
From Immersive Street Branding to Floor-by-Floor Experiences: The Making of "Musinsa Town"
A New Shopping Paradigm Shaped by Customer Participation

When you exit from Exit 3 of Seongsu (Musinsa) Station and turn into an alley, you immediately notice the distinct atmosphere. The unique texture of Seongsu is marked by a blend of paint covering old factory walls and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, with exceptionally clear brand logos coming into view. Most of the signs attracting your gaze to the left and right as you walk belong to Musinsa. Stores such as Musinsa Standard and Musinsa Kicks line the street, expanding the area into what feels like "Musinsa Town." The entire route leading to Musinsa Megastore Seongsu is designed as an experience of the Musinsa brand.

The exterior of the Musinsa Megastore opening on the 24th. Spanning a total area of 2,000 pyeong from basement level 1 to the 4th floor, it is a platform encompassing fashion, beauty, food & beverage, and lifestyle. Musinsa

The Musinsa Megastore Seongsu, officially opening on the 24th, is closer to a collective platform encompassing not only fashion, beauty, and lifestyle but also gourmet food and entertainment.

On the first floor, a pop-up zone immediately catches your attention. This space, which changes dynamically according to the season and collaborations, intensively showcases the latest trends. To the right of the store, brands representing Musinsa Girls—such as Ronron, Low Classic, The Baronet, and Gloni—have set up shop-in-shop sections.

Descending to the basement level, the atmosphere changes completely. The always-on pop-up zone "Musing-sa," introduced for the first time at Musinsa Megastore Seongsu, is a coin karaoke that combines brand pop-ups with a karaoke booth and a large media wall. Customers can sing against a backdrop of displayed products and video content from the pop-up brand, with the experience enhanced by the ability to create timelapse videos. At the time of the visit, a pop-up for NCT's WISH album was underway. The customer journey transitions from browsing clothes to grabbing a microphone, blurring the line between shopping and play.

The second floor features a blend of beauty, eyewear, and girls’ collections. As the first offline standalone store for Musinsa Beauty, the 150-pyeong beauty section is centered on "hands-on experience." With sinks and dedicated testing areas, customers can actually try out skincare and wash products. More than 700 brands are represented, allowing the experience to extend from simply viewing products to actually applying them on the skin.

MUSINSA Megastore Seongsu is the first offline store to feature MUSINSA Beauty. In addition to its own private brand, it houses over 700 beauty brands, providing a space designed for experiential shopping. Photo by Kwon Jaehee

Additionally, there is a "Lens Corner," the first of its kind in a beauty store, staffed by an optician. From eye exams to purchase, the entire process is available in one spot. The space is designed to encompass everything related to "beauty," extending beyond cosmetics.

The third floor is centered around Musinsa Standard. Categories such as men, women, home, and beauty are widely spread, representing a refined take on the basics. This is the second Musinsa Standard location in Seongsu, and it strategically features core items such as the curved pants and windbreaker jackets—products that have gone viral on social media and are only available at select stores. The newly launched seamless bra line is also included, providing a comprehensive Musinsa Standard brand experience that covers all aspects of lifestyle.

Ayoung Kwon, Musinsa’s Offline Commerce Manager, explained, "Excluding Nike and Adidas, which enjoy consistently high demand, the brands featured in shop-in-shop formats are rotated every three months. For the third floor, which is dedicated to Musinsa Standard, we have arranged the most popular products among global customers at the center to optimize the customer flow, taking into account not only domestic shoppers but also our global fanbase."

Musinsa Sports Corner, located on the 4th floor of the Musinsa Megastore Seongsu, operates a dedicated space where customers can customize sports uniforms by adding names. Photo by Jaehee Kwon

The higher you go, the more direct and immersive the experiences become. Upon entering the fourth floor, you encounter a food garden along with the sports and outdoor section. One area offers a customization corner where customers can have their names printed on uniforms. On this day, soccer uniforms were on display, but depending on the season, it may change to baseball or others. The "Food Garden" also features local F&B brands that capture the atmosphere of Seongsu, such as "Tteoksan," a Busan-style Garaetteokbokki place, "Jeonguk Gimbap Ilju," a collaboration with the renowned food curator Gimbap Daejang, and "Fuglen," a Nordic-inspired coffee brand. These brands are brought in to increase the time customers spend in-store and to offer a differentiated lifestyle experience that combines shopping with gourmet food.

The common theme throughout this space is "participation." Rather than simply displaying products and waiting for customers to choose, visitors are encouraged to touch, try on, sing, and customize items themselves, fostering a deeper connection with the brand. The same applies to payment. Self-checkout kiosks are installed throughout the store so customers can handle payment on their own, and foreign visitors can complete payment and tax refunds in a single process.

At Musinsa Megastore Seongsu, payment is also set up as part of the overall experience. For foreign customers, payment and tax refund can be completed all at once. Photo by Jaehee Kwon

Musinsa stated, "While continuing the identity of Seongsu-dong, which has transformed from an industrial area to a trendsetting district, the store will become a definitive landmark of Seongsu. Given that the first megastore in Yongsan attracts up to 250,000 visitors per month despite being smaller in scale than Seongsu, we expect the Seongsu Megastore to draw a broad target demographic from teenagers to those in their 40s, thereby expanding our customer base and establishing itself as a new retail paradigm."

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