The Korea Times

LVMH to raise prices of its luxury brands

People enjoy afternoon tea at a coffee shop in “House of Dior” in the posh neighborhood of Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul, in November 2019. / Korea Times fileBy Kim Jae-heunOnly a week after LVMH raised prices of Louis Vuitton products, the French multinational corporation decided to increase the product prices of other affiliated luxury brands such as Dior, Fendi, Givenchy and Bulgari. However, the exact rate of increase has not been revealed.Last year, Dior raised the price of its luxury products twice, once in May and again in July, by 10 percent each time. On Jan. 7, Louis Vuitton hiked the prices of its popular handbags by up to 25.6 percent. The continued popularity of luxury goods here, undeterred by the COVID-19 pandemic, led to the price markups. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, sales of luxury products at department stores surged 20 percent from May to December last year. Luxury product sales soared 32.5 percent in July alone. Thanks to this trend, Hyundai Department Store's Pangyo branch in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, saw annual revenu

Jan 15, 2021By Kim Jae-heun

LVMH to raise prices of its luxury brands

Companies

Coupang to change landscape of logistics market

A delivery worker sorts out parcels at Coupang's logistics center in Songpa District, southeastern Seoul, on Sept. 11, 2020. / Yonhap By Kim Jae-heunCoupang recently got the green light to run its own logistics business. With the approval from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the company will start by delivering products sold through its own online service. But once Coupang starts delivering parcels for other companies and customers, the landscape of Korea's highly competitive logistics market is expected to undergo major changes. Currently, CJ Logistics is in the lead accounting for a 47 percent market share. Coming in next are Lotte Logistics and Hanjin Logistics each with a 13 percent market share. CJ has reigned at the top for nearly eight years, leaving rivals with little chance to threaten its dominance. Coupang forayed into the Korean parcel-delivery market in 2018, but dropped out after just a year because it could not cope with the surgin

Jan 15, 2021By Kim Jae-heun

Coupang to change landscape of logistics market

Coupang Eats hot on heels of rival Yogiyo

Companies

Coupang Eats hot on heels of rival Yogiyo

A deliverywoman looks at her device while on the move. / Korea time fileBy Kim Jae-heunCoupang Eats is hot on the heels of Yogiyo, threatening to overtake its rival for the number two spot in Korea's rapidly-expanding food delivery service market. Yogiyo's market share stands at 18 percent, down from a 20-percent high recently. Coupang Eats, on the other hand, has increased its market share from 5 percent to 10 percent. According to big data firm IGAWorks, Coupang Eats' monthly active users (MAU) on Android smartphones skyrocketed by 70 percent to 1.26 million last November compared to 748,000 in August. That means Coupang's delivery service platform attracted 500,000 more customers over that short period. Meanwhile, other players saw their MAU decrease. The No.1 player, Baedal Minjok, owned by Woowa Brothers, saw its market share edge down just 1 percent. However, the No. 2 and No. 4 players, Yogiyo and Baedaltong, saw their MAU drop 10 percent and 28 percent, respectively, during the same period. The numbers say a lot about Coupang Eats' potential in the market as demand for food d

Jan 14, 2021By Kim Jae-heun

Coupang Eats hot on heels of rival Yogiyo

Coupang to change landscape of logistics market

Companies

DoorDash, Uber Eats tapped as candidates to take over Yogiyo

A delivery person for DoorDash rides his bike in the rain during the coronavirus pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, Nov. 13. / REUTERS-YonhapBy Kim Jae-heunA U.S. firm DoorDash and local e-commerce company Coupang are being seen as candidates to acquire Yogiyo, the No.2 player in the domestic food delivery service market. “DoorDash and several other strategic investors such as Just Eat, Takeaway.com and Meituan Dianping, will have a chance to enter the Korean market with the cash and investments generated from other parts of the world they're operating in,” an industry source said. “American firms especially have enough money to do so.”Yogiyo's value is estimated at around 2 trillion won, which is quite high for small- or medium-sized private equity funds.For DoorDash, the Korean market is attractive for its test-bed characteristic. As the seventh-largest single market among OECD member countries, Korea has good buying power and information technology infrastructure. Competition in American and Chinese markets is already too fierce and the Kor

Jan 12, 2021By Kim Jae-heun

DoorDash, Uber Eats tapped as candidates to take over Yogiyo

Companies

WeMakePrice struggles to rebound without leader

WeMakePrice CEO Park Eun-sang speaks during a press conference at his office in Seoul in this 2015 file photo. / Korea times fileBy Kim Jae-heunLocal e-commerce firm WeMakePrice is struggling in the fiercely competitive online retail market amid its CEO Park Eun-sang's almost eight-month absence. Park has not been coming to the office due to ill health since last June.The company said it has no plans to appoint a new CEO to replace Park and he will return to his position as soon as he recovers. Park originally planned to come back in July but his leave of absence has been prolonged and Vice President Ha Song has taken the position of acting CEO. WeMakePrice has been facing a decline despite its success in attracting investments amounting to 370 billion won from Nexon Korea and local private equity fund IMM Investment in 2019.The investment saved the company from capital impairment but instead of the firm choosing to improve efficiency after suffering an operating loss of 75.7 billion won the previous year, WeMakePrice decided to expand its business, like Coupang. However, the two fir

Jan 12, 2021By Kim Jae-heun

WeMakePrice struggles to rebound without leader

Companies

Coupang's IPO still looking uncertain

A Coupang vehicle is driven down a road in Seoul in this 2020 file photo. / Courtesy of CoupangBy Kim Jae-heunChairman Masayoshi Son's SoftBank is preparing to list six companies that it is the major investor in and holds managing rights to this year, and according to media reports last week, Coupang will be the first. However, whether its initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq will be successful or not is still questionable.Son appears to believe e-commerce firm has a good chance of attracting other investors because of its continuously growing corporate value, estimated at 33 trillion won ($30.2 billion) currently. Coupang's value has increased six-fold since 2015 when SoftBank first invested in the company through its venture capital fund Vision Fund. Coupang's business performance has, however, showed mixed results with regards to growth. The biggest risk to a successful IPO is the numbers. Coupang has not reported a profit since 2014 ― its losses totaled 3.7 trillion won up to 2019 and last year's figures also show losses of between 600 billion won to 1 trillion won. All th

Jan 10, 2021By Kim Jae-heun

Companies

Homeplus CEO Lim Il-soon to resign

Homeplus CEO Im Il-soon, left, shakes hands with an employee at a store in Incheon, in December 2020. / Courtesy of HomeplusBy Kim Jae-heun Lim Il-soon is stepping down from her position as Homeplus CEO. According to the retailer, Lim offered to resign over personal matters in the second half of last year and the company accepted her decision. Homeplus originally tried to dissuade Lim but she was insistent and the company decided to respect her wishes.It has not been confirmed when Lim will end her tenure but the company expects it to be within a week or two.Lim came to Homeplus as the chief financial officer in November 2015 and served as chief operations officer two years later. However, after only five months, she was promoted to CEO in October 2017. Lim has set many records in her career.She was the first woman outside of a chaebol owner family to become a CEO in the local retail industry.Lim is the first CEO to hire 99 percent of employees as permanent workers after changing 15,000 temporary positions to permanent ones. She carried this action out in her third year as CEO, leadi

Jan 7, 2021By Kim Jae-heun

Companies

Louis Vuitton raises prices again, but only in Korea

A Louis Vuitton pop-up store for menswear at Shinsegae Department Store in Seoul, August 2020 / Courtesy of Shinsegae Department StoreBy Kim Jae-heunLuxury goods company Louis Vuitton raised prices for its products in Korea only just eight months after its last increase.Unlike Chanel or Hermes that adjust prices simultaneously across all of their global stores, Louis Vuitton has been known to increase its prices only in Korea.The increased prices were mainly reflected in local bestseller items. The price for its small handbag “Pochette Accessoires,” in particular, went up by 25.6 percent to 980,000 won from 780,000 won. The price for the smaller version “Mini Pochette Accessoires” also increased by 22 percent from 410,000 won to 500,000 won.“It is exploiting people's psychology of revenge shopping by increasing prices for somewhat cheaper items, which are less of a burden for customers to purchase,” an industry source said. Due to the travel ban driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have been spending more of their disposable income on luxur

Jan 7, 2021By Kim Jae-heun

Louis Vuitton raises prices again, but only in Korea

Companies

Galleria Dep't Store hit for lax control of staff

Staffers at Galleria Department Store's VIP lounge stack macarons on their feet. They broadcasted this live on social media on Tuesday, and it went viral online instantly. / Korea times fileBy Kim Jae-heunThe Galleria Department Store in Gwanggyo, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, is in trouble after two staffers at the VIP lounge uploaded live broadcasts of themselves mishandling macarons that were intended for customers to social media.The live video, showing them playing with the macarons and also using their feet, went viral. The department store installed a sign in front of the VIP lounge carrying an apology, and sent mobile messages to VIP customers promising to prevent such incidents from happening again. It also said the two staffers have been removed from their positions and the VIP lounge will be temporarily closed. According to Galleria, the two staffers were employees dispatched from one of its subcontractors and the incident took place while the manager of the lounge was absent for a few minutes. The VIP lounge is the largest in the country ― only those who spend over 5 million

Jan 7, 2021By Kim Jae-heun

Galleria Dep't Store hit for lax control of staff

Companies

Coway introduces new smaller but stronger Dual Clean

Coway's Dual Clean machine is displayed in a room / Courtesy of CowayBy Kim Jae-heunA local home appliance maker Coway recently launched a new version of its air purifier and humidifier combo, the Dual Clean, offering improved functions and a more compact design than its predecessor.The machine is aimed mainly at parents of young children who are worried about worsening ultra-fine dust in the winter season that can affect indoor air quality. As people are spending more time at home due to the social distancing measures implemented amid the COVID-19 pandemic, improving air quality in the home has become more important. The dual function of Coway's air purifier and humidifier enables buyers to save money and space in the home compared to those who purchase separate machines. Coway's Dual Clean adopts natural humidification technology to keep the optimal level of moisture in the air. Dual Clean also includes “water lock” technology, an automatic water control system, which only opens the container when the humidifier is operating and closes it when the machine is turned off.

Jan 6, 2021By Kim Jae-heun

Kim Jae-heun

Read more

LVMH to raise prices of its luxury brands

Coupang to change landscape of logistics market

Coupang Eats hot on heels of rival Yogiyo

DoorDash, Uber Eats tapped as candidates to take over Yogiyo

WeMakePrice struggles to rebound without leader

Coupang's IPO still looking uncertain

Homeplus CEO Lim Il-soon to resign

Louis Vuitton raises prices again, but only in Korea

Galleria Dep't Store hit for lax control of staff

Coway introduces new smaller but stronger Dual Clean

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