Use of plastic bags at convenience stores will be banned from Nov. 24, two years after they were removed from hypermarkets as part of eco-friendly efforts. Like in the large supermarkets, customers will have the option of purchasing standard user-pay trash bags or paper bags at convenience stores to carry what they bought. If a store is found to have used regular plastic bags, it will be slappe...

An advertising campaign video for kimchi, co-produced by South Korea's leading kimchi maker Daesang and Seo Kyung-duk, an expert in promoting Korea overseas, plays in New York's Times Square on Monday. Under the slogan, "Taste the original," the campaign aims to promote Korea as the originator of kimchi as well as customer awareness worldwide.

A study has found that heated tobacco product Glo contained less toxicants than traditional cigarettes, and could help reduce potential harm of smoking-related diseases, the Seoul branch of its manufacturer BAT Group said Tuesday. “Our recent one-year clinical trial found that our flagship heated tobacco product Glo showed 90-95 percent less toxicants contained in aerosol compared to cigarette s...

With the Korean won falling sharply against the US dollar, cross-border shopping on US platforms has become less attractive to Korean shoppers in a peak season that includes Black Friday in the US, sources said Monday. According to Statistics Korea data, transaction volume of cross-border shopping from the country to the US increased on-year by a mere 6.4 percent to 512.3 billion won ($358.9 mil...

Duty-free shops eye Southeast Asia, use Hallyu marketing to attract broader consumer base

A day before announcement, Hanwha chairman's youngest son posts the plan on his Instagram

Hyundai Department Store said Wednesday it would compensate staff and partner companies suffering from a business void at Daejeon Hyundai Premium Outlet that caught fire last week that left seven deaths. The company will give 2.5 million won-3.5 million won ($1,760-$2,470) to around 1,000 managers and salespeople whose work has been suspended due to the post-fire shutdown. Refusing to disclose ...

Nongshim's Shinramyeon still No. 1; sales of bibimmyeon wane in summer due to heavy rain

SPC Group has opened three more Paris Baguette stores in Paris this year to expand its business in the European market, the South Korean food and beverage giant said Tuesday. The latest Paris Baguette store is set to open in Montparnasse, a major commercial district in the southern part of Paris on Tuesday, local time. The opening of Paris Baguette Montparnasse branch follows two branch opening...

As Korea transitions to the endemic stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, the online-focused retail industry is shifting toward offline stores to enhance customer experience, a report showed Tuesday. Although the vacancy rate rose in commercial districts during the pandemic, retail brands are eyeing prime spaces to open pop-up or flagship stores, according to a report from commercial real estate platf...

La Boutique Bleue, a premium home spa care brand that launched in South Korea in 2021, introduced a non-fungible token certification service, the company said Friday. According to LBB, it has offered VIP membership cards in the form of NFTs to participants that took part in the launch event of the Italian luxury golf wear brand Filippo Piana in Seoul. LBB had collaborated with Filippo Piana in ...

South Korean food giant SPC Group said Sunday its coffeehouse-to-bakery brand Paris Baguette has ranked 25th among the best franchise brands evaluated by the US-based magazine Franchise Times. According to the Franchise Times Top 500, an annual ranking of the largest franchise brands by sales in the US, Paris Baguette's ranking jumped 13 spots from last year's 38th. Its ranking is the highest am...

South Korean retail-to-chemical giant Lotte Group said Thursday its overseas investment has exceeded 7 trillion won ($4.9 billion) this year. So far, the largest overseas project is Lotte Chemical’s Line Project, a $3.9 billion megasized petrochemicals production complex in Banten, Indonesia. It aims to produce 1 million metric tons of ethylene, 520,000 tons of propylene, 250,000 tons of polypro...

With fast-growing interest in eco-friendly lifestyles, South Korean food companies are expanding plant-based menu items and restaurants to cater to the growing global vegan population of some 180 million. Nongshim, the country’s leading instant noodle maker, said Thursday it has launched eight kinds of plant-based "cup rice" (rice bowl with toppings), and porridge, in partnership with vegan rest...

Global messaging app provider Line Corp. said Tuesday that Line Man Wongnai, its delivery platform operated in Thailand, has raised $265 million in a funding round led by Line Corp. and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC. Other investors in the Series B funding include BRV Capital Management, PTT Oil and Retail Business Public Co., Bualuang Ventures and Taiwan Mobile. With the new investment...