SOUTH KOREA. Lotte Duty Free has partnered with L’Oréal Travel Retail Asia Pacific to host a special customer invitation event. It is taking place at the Star Lounge VIP facility at Lotte’s flagship downtown store in Myeong-dong, Seoul.
The ‘YSL Beauty Hotel’ event began today (1 August) and will run for three days. Lotte said 2,000 foreign customers would be in attendance, mostly from Asian countries such as China and Japan. In total, some 3,000 customers will take part in a programme of events and experiences including beauty classes, concerts, a gaming room, a virtual reality experience space and a photo zone.
Lotte is also offering participants services such as airport shuttles and hotel accommodation. Every customer has been given a ‘check-in wristband’ with NFC (near-field communication) capability, giving them access to all event-related data, such as information about the products being displayed, photos, videos and game scores.
The event forms part of a wider collaboration between Lotte and L’Oréal. As reported, Lotte has now exited its Incheon International Airport Terminal 1 cosmetics, fashion and leathergoods contracts. In response, the retailer said it would focus on offering “further differentiated marketing” at its downtown duty free stores and online, including events, promotions and discounts. Lotte said its aim was to maintain customers who had previously used its Incheon stores.
The Star Lounge is Korea’s largest VIP lounge and opened in April. Construction work took about five months, at a cost of KRW10 billion. It features four VIP rooms, private meeting rooms, personal shopper rooms and a Guylian café.
“We have established a more intimate partnership with L’Oréal through the event,” said Lotte Duty Free CEO Jang Sun-wook. “In the future, we will organise diverse events with more brands.”
