Myeongdong, Seoul’s shopping hub, is back and better than ever
Myeongdong, Seoul’s shopping mecca, is showing signs of revival with the easing of pandemic restrictions.
Stores are reopening their doors to welcome customers — including foreigners.
According to CJ Olive Young on Monday, sales to foreigners at its five branches in Myeongdong, central Seoul, from March 1 to 17 rose 29 times year-on-year. Sales have more than doubled when compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. The beauty retailer declined to disclose the exact figures.
With Korea’s lifting of post-arrival test requirement for travelers from China from March 1, the company believes that the shopping area is in revival as it is getting shoppers back from North America, Southeast Asia and Japan — and now from China.
Of the total sales at Olive Young’s Myeongdong branches reported this month, 73 percent were by foreigners. Foreign sales accounted for only 12 percent during the same period in 2022.
“We believe the consumer confidence of travelers which had been suppressed during the Covid-19 pandemic exploded coupled up with the spring season and the recent sale,” a spokesperson for Olive Young said.
“Foreigners trying to experience K-beauty in person by visiting offline stores also played a part,” the spokesperson added.
Signs of a recovery is detected from fast rising floating population to the shopping district.
According to a data from the Small Enterprise and Market Service (Semas), the daily average floating population in Myeongdong was 76,696 in December 2022, up 61.8 percent from 47,379 a year ago. The figure is nearing the pre-pandemic level of 129,862 in December 2019.
Olive Young is not the only place that is returning to normality.
Daiso, a dollar-shop chain, reopened its Myeongdong branch near Myeongdong Station Exit 1 in central Seoul on March 1. The branch, which opened in 2017, shrunk its operations from April 2021 due to the pandemic, and eventually shuttered its doors in March 2022.
This year, the store returned double its previous size.
“The Myeongdong branch is the second-largest Daiso store in Seoul, using the whole 12-story building with around 1,652 square meters [17,782 square feet] of floor space,” a Daiso official said. Previously, it operated only on the first to fifth floors.
Adidas similarly opened an Adidas Brand Flagship Seoul on Jan. 18 in the main street in Myeongdong, a year after it closed. The two-story, 2,501 square-meter store of the global sportswear brand is the largest Adidas store in the country yet.
Footwear companies including ABC Mart and Shoemarker Plus, Blue Bottle coffee store and jewelry store chain Lloyd also made grand openings in the bustling shopping area in December 2022.
“Just until recently, shops in Myeongdong saw many tourists from Southeast Asia and the United States, but the number of Chinese visitors has definitely increased from this month,” an official from the retail industry said.
“It seems that Myeongdong’s commercial district is starting to revive,” the retail official said.
BY CHOI SUN-EUL, SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]