Hyundai Department Store to test future business model

Exterior of soon-to-be-opened The Hyundai Seoul on Yeouido / Courtesy of Hyundai Department Store

By Kim Jae-heun

Hyundai Department Store is opening a new shopping mall on Yeouido, Seoul, next month ― testing the concept for its future retail business.

The new building, called “The Hyundai Seoul,” stands eight stories tall and extends another seven levels underground. The flagship store has a floor space of 89,100 square meters and it is the biggest department store in the capital area.

Hyundai Department Store said the new facility is different from others in that it offers not only shopping pleasure but also cultural spaces and places for relaxation.

The whole building is decorated with both futuristic and nature-friendly concepts. It built a 12-meter-tall artificial waterfall on the first floor and an indoor botanical garden on the fifth floor to help people recharge. Robots are also available for shoppers to get directions to their destinations and people can check their body temperature with the machines.

“Based on our 50 years of capacity in the retail business and innovations created from our knowhow, we will develop our new department store into a representative lifestyle landmark of Seoul,” Hyundai Department Store CEO Kim Hyung-jong said. “We will offer new shopping experiences and values that shoppers have never come across before and suggest new directions for future department stores.”

However, Hyundai Department Store's idea to make its building as more than a place to shop has already been tried by Shinsegae Group.

It is not new for people living in the capital area to shop in such an environment, as Shinsegae opened a similar store called Starfield in Hanam in September 2016. It was the largest mall in the country then, offering a movie theater, restaurants, bookstore and boutiques for luxury brands all under one roof.

There is also a large shopping mall on Yeouido already, the International Finance Center (IFC) Seoul located across the street. It is not as new as The Hyundai Seoul building and doesn't offer new high-tech services, but it offers almost every fashion brand store and restaurant that Hyundai Department Store plans to open.

“Nothing is new apart from that The Hyundai Seoul is newly built and it is bigger than other department stores in Seoul. It is yet to open to the public and we don't know what it can actually offer to customers that can really differentiate it from others. If it fails to provide any distinguished shopping experience, it will not achieve the success that its Pangyo branch did in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province,” an industry source said.