Lotte Department Store signed Blackpink singer Jennie for a yearlong campaign. The deal follows foreign shoppers pushing international sales past 1 trillion won for the first time.
The agreement gives South Korea’s largest department store operator its first brand ambassador in seven years. It covers 31 domestic branches and four outlets in Vietnam and Indonesia.
Promotions launch in October across central transit hubs, including Incheon Airport and Seoul Station. Shinsegae Department Store counters without a formal contract. The rival chain, which operates 13 locations nationwide, features rookie group Allday Project member Annie on the digital screen outside its Myeong-dong flagship through Oct. 18. She is the daughter of Shinsegae Inc. Chair Chung Yoo-kyung.
Foreign Footfall Rewrites Merchandising Strategies
Department store operators across East and Southeast Asia spent years phasing out celebrity-driven advertising in favour of direct luxury brand partnerships. Rising tourist traffic reversed that playbook in Seoul. Floor plans evolved from standard retail halls into cultural destinations for international visitors.
Foreign visitors spent 14.02 trillion won ($10.5 billion) on credit cards across South Korea from January through August. That represents a 48.5 percent increase from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Overseas visitors now generate almost 30 percent of total sales at the Myeong-dong flagships of both Lotte and Shinsegae. That share stood at 15 percent in 2024.
“By combining our ambassador’s global influence with Lotte Department Store’s brand value, we will widen our reach to customers worldwide,” said Lotte Department Store CEO Jung Hyun-seok.
Flagship Showdowns in Myeong-dong
Concentrated tourist demand inside central Seoul creates intense pressure on prime retail real estate. Lotte built a dedicated hall for domestic fashion labels that draws most of its volume from inbound travellers. Shinsegae consolidated K-pop merchandise, packaged snacks, and domestic apparel labels onto a single tourist floor.
Competition extends directly to the street. Shinsegae uses its building-scale outdoor digital media screen to display cultural and pop music content. Lotte plans to counter with an even larger outdoor display panel on its own building facade in December.
Surging Operating Profits Across Both Chains
Record quarterly and half-year earnings followed the spending surge. Lotte generated roughly 640 billion won in sales to overseas shoppers during the first half. Shinsegae collected 580 billion won from the same demographic.
Second-quarter results set new records. Lotte’s department store division reported revenue of 891.2 billion won, lifting operating profit 84 percent to 119.7 billion won. Shinsegae posted store revenue of 738.5 billion won, up 17.5 percent, while operating profit jumped 53.5 percent to 108.8 billion won.
First-half tallies confirmed the trend. Lotte expanded six-month operating profit by 54.8 percent to 295.9 billion won on revenue of 1.69 trillion won. Shinsegae grew first-half operating profit 39.7 percent to 249.9 billion won as division revenue reached 1.48 trillion won.
Southeast Asian Footprint and Year-End Targets
Across Southeast Asia, the celebrity campaign supports a retail footprint of four department stores in Vietnam and Indonesia. Cross-border brand recognition directly affects footfall in those assets. Korean lifestyle and beauty concepts drive the tenant mix at each location.
Lotte had not used a single advertising model since actress Shin Min-a fronted its promotions in 2017. Its Myeong-dong flagship alone generated approximately 520 billion won of the retailer’s 1 trillion won in foreign sales this year. The chain focuses on maintaining foreign customer volumes into the final quarter.
Both department store chains turn next to year-end campaigns for the winter travel season, led by the December opening of Lotte’s expanded media wall in Myeong-dong.