Hyundai Department Store, a major department store chain in South Korea has recently announced that the pop-up stores (temporary stores) featuring three virtual idol groups held at The Hyundai Seoul for a month attracted 100,000 visitors.
The Hyundai Seoul held pop-up stores showcasing virtual idol groups such as “ISEGYE IDOL,” “StelLive,” and “PLAVE” from Feb. 15 to Mar. 17. “PLAVE,” which debuted in March last year and took the top spot on a South Korean music program broadcast by a terrestrial channel earlier this month, held a virtual concert at Sounds Forest, the largest indoor garden in the country located within The Hyundai Seoul.
Its pop-up stores generated more than 7 billion won (about $ 5.25 million) in sales in one month. Considering that a fashion or designer pop-up generates about 1 billion won in sales in the same period, this is an extraordinary level.
An official from Hyundai Department Store said, “100,000, the number of visitors to the pop-ups is enough to fill Jamsil Stadium to its capacity.” “This is the result of a variety of experiential contents improving features of an offline space,” adding, “We set up a holographic photo booth where visitors could take photos with their favorite members and showed videos only available at Hyundai Department Store.”
The company considered that key success factors were its know-how and capabilities in attracting differentiated entertainment content, which successfully led to its “Enter Tenant” (entertainment + anchor tenant) strategy.
The department store chain has been operating entertainment pop-up stores in its branches since September 2022, starting with the “NewJeans” pop-up store at The Hyundai Seoul. The first pop-up of “RIIZE,” a K-pop boy band was opened in January this year at its Sinchon store, a K-pop mecca crowded with K-pop lovers, predominantly by both domestic and international college students. The South Korean trot singer “Song Ga-in” also held a pop-up store at Hyundai Department Store Mokdong, targeting customers in their 40s and 50s. It is said that this was her first pop-up at a department store.
The retail conglomerate has a plan to continuously introduce entertainment content based on advanced digital and media technologies and artist collaborations. The idea is to create synergies that will increase dwell time and external visitors by breaking away from the image of community shopping malls.
The Hyundai Seoul, the hottest venue for pop-ups, earned more than half (56%) of its total sales last year from customers in the metropolitan area more than 10 kilometers away. Its entertainment-related pop-up sales accounted for 72% of the metropolitan area’s total sales.
