Not just girls and guys next door, influencers emerge as new marketing superpower leading fast-changing retail trend

Convenience store owners are pushing to impose late-night surcharges on items to offset the expected rise in labor costs from next year’s legal minimum wage increase. In a meeting held Tuesday, the National Convenience Store Franchise Association, which represents store owners, decided to officially demand that convenience store franchises support the idea. Under the proposal, owners would impose a 5 percent surcharge on the price of all items sold at their store from midnight to 6 a.

South Korean convenience stores are testing their service accessibility to remote areas by deploying drones for delivery use to enhance customer experience. Local convenience store chain CU said Wednesday that it has launched a drone delivery service for the first time at CU’s Yeongwol Gongju branch in Gangwon Province. The delivery drone, which weighs 17 kilograms and measures 70 centimeters in height, will carry products from the CU branch to Oasis Glamping, a camping site located som

Hangover drinks are a multi-billion won industry, despite lacking medical backing

Vietnam outpaced South Korea in terms of instant noodle consumption per capita, on the Southeast Asian country’s growing purchasing power and economic growth rate, data showed Thursday. According to Nongshim, a leading ramyeon maker in South Korea, the average Vietnamese eats about 87 servings a year while the average South Korean has 73 servings, citing 2021 data from the World Instant Noodles Association. Nepal was in third place with 55 servings per person a year. Korea topped the wor

The South Korean government has begun imposing zero tariffs on 50,000 tons of imported pork from Thursday, in a move to stabilize the skyrocketing price of pork here. It is the first time in 11 years for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to introduce a tariff quota on pork. The ministry allows the import of a certain quantity of a commodity duty-free or at a lower-duty rate. With zero tariffs, the ministry forecasts that the production cost of pork will go down as much as 18

South Korean health and beauty retailer CJ Olive Young said Thursday its sales of men’s cosmetic products in the first half of this year increased 24 percent compared to the same period last year. The retailer saw a 130 percent increase in the basic skin care category, which includes toners and lotions. In the cosmetics category, foundations and color lip balms were the most-sold items, according to company data. Data also showed that in-person purchase of cosmetics among male customer

South Korea’s duty-free shops are launching cross-border sales services starting Friday with high hopes to secure consumers overseas, as they are losing price advantage to local clients due to high won-dollar exchange rates. Lotte Duty Free opened the overseas shipping service on Wednesday, which sells around 220 kinds of products including cosmetics, fashion items and food products. Consumers in nine countries including China, Japan, US, Singapore and Thailand can enjoy free shipping as

Italian luxury fashion brand Gucci on Wednesday launched its new “Gucci Pet Collection,” catering to canines and felines that enjoy extravagant lifestyles. The product line is part of a larger collection titled “Gucci Lifestyle,” which was launched in September 2021. The pet attire and accessories are all made from recycled cotton and polyester, and Gucci’s own eco-friendly fabric called Demetra that is made from sustainable, renewable sources. Pet owners can now

Retail sales in South Korea rose 10.1 percent on-year in May on the back of growing demand for fashion-related items and other services amid the government's relaxation of COVID-19 curbs and the growth in people's outdoor activities, the industry ministry said Tuesday. The combined sales of 25 major offline and online retailers reached 14.45 trillion won ($11.24 billion) last month, up from 13.1 trillion won a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Indus

South Korean food giant Pulmuone said Monday it has sponsored a documentary production with the Culinary Institute of America, one of the world’s most prestigious culinary schools, to promote Korean food to a global audience. In partnership with Pulmuone, the CIA plans to document Korea’s plant-based recipes and food culture. The documentary will be used for educational purposes for chefs, CIA students and food and cafeteria service providers in the US. Starting with Korea, the CI

The IB Korea, a beer and liquor importer, recently participated in the Air House Festival, a music fair held in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, for three days starting June 10. At the event, the IB Korea met with young customers in their 20s, introducing its newly launched cocktail products, Uptown Margarita and Uptown Pina Colada. The two new products are brands from Texas-based distillery and winery Southern Champion. The Uptown Margarita is an agave wine-based cocktail, while the Uptown Pina

The trend of having healthy home-cooked meals has driven household goods companies to expand their business into the small home appliances sector. LocknLock, the global food container maker, has introduced Steam Fryer S2, which offers five cooking options -- steam oven, air fryer, grill, toaster and steamer. In particular, its super steam mode cooks food at 130 degrees Celcius and forces superheated steam deep inside ingredients. Since the cooker heats ingredients fast, it draws out fat and sa

With fast-growing interest in high quality skin and hair care products in South Korea, the dermocosmetics market -- cosmetics that are just as effective as dermatological care -- has expanded in recent years to surpass the 4 trillion won ($3.1 billion) mark, a report showed Thursday. According to Samjong KPMG, a Seoul-based consulting firm, the country’s dermocosmetics market size has increased by 17.6 percent to 4.5 trillion won in 2020, compared to five years ago. The report said new

Surging lunch prices drive some workers back in the office to convenience stores