SOUTH KOREA. Lotte Duty Free will participate in Lotte Group’s ecommerce shopping festival ‘Lotte On World’ by releasing the largest stock of luxury products to date for sale in non-duty free channels, writes The Moodie Davitt Report Senior Retail and Commercial Analyst Min Yong Jung*.
Lotte On World is Lotte’s biggest ecommerce shopping festival and runs from 23 October to 1 November. During this period, Lotte Duty Free will provide around 800 luxury fashion brand products that have not featured in the company’s initiative to sell undepleted duty free stock in recent months.
Products (sold on a duty paid basis) range from winter products such as coats, sweaters and mufflers to bags, shoes, watches, accessories, sunglasses and electronics. Some 50 foreign luxury brands, including Bottega Veneta, Chloé, Tod’s, Montblanc and Canon, are available at discounts of up to -75% compared to Lotte department store prices. Montblanc and Golden Goose, known for its sneakers, also make their debut in this sales round.
The sixth round of Lotte Duty Free’s sale into the domestic channel began on 16 October but the retailer has enhanced its offering to participate in the wider Lotte Group initiative.
Around 2,100 products in total will be offered by Lotte Duty Free for the Lotte On World event, higher than the volume offered in previous rounds.
A Lotte Duty Free spokesman said: “The domestic clearance sale received a strong reception from customers in every round offered up to date. Our preparation and offer this round is more comprehensive than in previous rounds as we are participating in a wider Lotte Group ecommerce shopping event.”
Korea Customs Service (KCS) announced on 29 April that it accepted the local duty free industry’s request to offload unsold stock (after paying import taxes) through a range of channels. The scheme expires on 29 October but Lotte Duty Free told The Moodie Davitt Report that products declared as duty paid can still be sold through non-duty free domestic channels beyond this date.
KCS has yet to announce its intentions to extend the scheme but has told The Moodie Davitt Report that it will look to support besieged local companies in any way that it can.
*Note: Korean national Min Yong Jung, formerly based in London and now in Seoul, is Senior Retail and Commercial Analyst at The Moodie Davitt Report. His appointment in June 2019 was the first of its kind in travel retail media. It marked the creation of the Moodie Davitt Business Intelligence Unit, a new division designed to provide a previously unseen level of research and analysis for the travel retail channel.
Do you have research needs related to the Korean and Asia Pacific travel retail and luxury markets? Min Yong Jung can be contacted at minyong@moodiedavittreport.com
