On June 2 this year, Shinsegae Department Store Busan Branch set a Guinness World Record as the world's largest department store. Nearly 18,000 outstanding members from Amway in mainland China and Taiwan were selected to receive rewards in the form of a trip to Korea. Together, they visited representative tourist spots in Busan such as Nampo-dong and Taejongdae. They then went to Shinsegae Department Store Busan, the world’s largest department store. Shinsegae Busan specially held a grand “Golden Panda” parade for these 18,000 Chinese tourists. During the parade, 20 actors dressed as cartoon pandas handed out prizes, and the massive marching procession attracted considerable attention. Shinsegae Department Store consistently offers a variety of benefits and exciting events tailored to Chinese tourists and other customer groups, and continues to strive in doing so.
Shinsegae collaborates with internationally renowned organizations to create experiential travel and partners with global credit card companies such as UnionPay for promotional efforts. It also works with China International Travel Service (CITS) on project planning and VIP-exclusive marketing. These are all part of Shinsegae’s ongoing efforts to ensure customer satisfaction in shopping. In addition, the Korean Ministry of Justice has joined forces with Shinsegae Department Store to establish policies for issuing special discount cards exclusively for Chinese VIP members. All of this serves as strong recognition of Shinsegae Department Store as the foremost top-tier department store in the Republic of Korea.
If the above still sounds too general, let’s look at some specific examples of what Shinsegae Department Store has actually done. From April 30 to August 31 this year, an event giving away “golden pandas” was held at the tax refund counter on the first floor of Shinsegae Department Store’s main building. All participating Chinese customers had the chance to enter a lottery, with one lucky winner selected from all participants to receive this “golden panda.” The 333g pure gold-plated panda is worth nearly 17 million KRW and holds high collectible and commemorative value. Similarly, a “Golden Dragon” giveaway event was also held last year, where the winner was specially invited by Shinsegae and happily took home the prize, the “Golden Dragon.”
During the recent Labor Day holiday, Shinsegae Department Store extended the Golden Week to a total of 17 days (April 25 – May 11), offering special product vouchers equivalent to 5% of each customer’s spending amount, targeted primarily at Chinese customers. In addition, Shinsegae Department Store offered discounts of 10–30% on nearly 100 popular luxury brands favored by Chinese customers. This campaign was quite successful—compared to the same period in previous years, the number of visitors increased by nearly 65%, and sales rose by 128%. Shinsegae Department Store will continue to actively provide more and better services and promotions for Chinese customers as it has always done.
In addition, Shinsegae Department Store aims not only to provide the best service in Korea but also within China itself. The official Weibo account of Shinsegae Department Store in Korea has already surpassed 4.1 million followers. To show appreciation for the support of Chinese fans, Shinsegae Department Store also holds a variety of engaging activities on Weibo every month.
Through continuous efforts in introducing various well-known tourist attractions related to shopping, art, culture, and entertainment, Shinsegae Department Store has now firmly established itself as the center of “K-pop shopping,” marking a new milestone for the store. Especially popular among Chinese VIP customers are the various luxury brand items used by today’s trending K-pop stars. For example, clothing from the Armani Collezioni brand worn by popular Korean star So Ji-sub in a certain Korean drama, COLOMBO bags worn by Jun Ji-hyun, ZIOZIA brand clothing worn by Kim Soo-hyun, and the famous knitwear brand MISSONI worn by Girls’ Generation are all extremely popular items.
More details about Shinsegae Department Store can be found by visiting its Weibo page (http://weibo.com/shinsegaegroup).