Lotte Duty Free focuses energy on stores in Seoul

South Korea’s Lotte Duty Free, which removed its stores from Incheon International Airport in late June, is channeling its energy toward boosting its main outlet in downtown Seoul and online.

Given a rapidly recovering duty-free sector thanks to the resumption of Chinese group tours to the country, the company apparently had no time for complacency following its withdrawal from the nation’s major air hub.

Lotte Duty Free on Thursday opened LDF House, a marketing center with a floor area of ​​298 square meters, on Myeong-dong Walking Street in downtown Seoul. The company is the first in the domestic industry to open a space for promoting items rather selling them. 

The strategy behind the center is to display popular items to get prospective buyers to go to the main sales outlet, which is a five-minute walk away at Lotte Department Store. LDF House also offers visitors coupon packs usable at the main store.

Lotte said LDF House will have a major effect as foreign tourists prefer duty-free shopping in the capital’s downtown area instead of at the Incheon airport.

The Korea Duty-Free Shop Association said foreign spending at duty-free stores in central Seoul in August reached 831.8 billion won ($612 million), a whopping 12.6 times more than 65.8 billion won at those situated at the airport’s departure hall.

Write to Mi-Kyoung Lee at capital@hankyung.com