Hyundai Department launches Korean brands' global platform

Hyundai Department Store Co., South Korea’s major retail conglomerate, has launched “The Hyundai Global” platform dedicated to promoting fledgling Korean fashion companies and pave the way for their forays into other countries. 

The department store operator said on Sunday it will open pop-up stores of Korean fashion brands within department stores abroad and handle the whole negotiations and management process ranging from customs clearance to transportation, logistics and inventory management.

This will help brands reduce costs by more than 30% versus directly opening their stores overseas, Hyundai said.

As its first step, Hyundai Department is set to sign a business partnership with Parco, a Japanese retail giant, this month and open a pop-up store for Korean street fashion brand Noice in the Shibuya Parco shopping center in Tokyo in May.

Following Noice, 10 other casual Korean clothing brands — including Emis, Matin Kim and Mischief — will take turns displaying their collections in the same pop-up store.

Hyundai Department Store will also open pop-up stores in other Japanese cities through The Hyundai Global to promote small- and medium-sized Korean clothing brands.

It said the The Hyundai Global platform was launched to meet foreign distributors’ collaboration proposals to benchmark the product sourcing and merchandising capabilities of The Hyundai Seoul, its newest upscale outlet that has become a landmark shopping and entertainment venue.

“We have been recognized internationally for our ability to break the mold of existing department stores that were limited to established fashion MDs and to constantly suggest brands and content that could not be found offline,” Jung Jee Young, chief executive of Hyundai Department Store, said in a statement.

It is also in talks on collaborations with retail companies from China and Southeast Asia, the company added.

Last month, Hyundai Department inked an agreement with Thailand's Siam Piwat to open a K-content shop within an outlet managed by the Thai department store operator.

Write to Young-Chan Song at 0full@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article