This is the fifth installment in a series of articles on companies vying for Seoul’s new duty-free licenses to be issued Saturday -- Ed.

HDC Shilla has promised to create a duty-free store catering to trendy millennials at the IPark Tower in Gangnam-gu if granted a new duty-free license.


The joint venture between Hyundai Development and Hotel Shilla chose the artsy building designed by American architect Daniel Libeskind as the home of its next duty-free store. Sitting just across the street from Coex in the heart of the southern Seoul business district, the tower is an ideal spot to create Seoul’s next landmark, said the company.

The new HDC Shilla duty-free store will lure millennials by utilizing the latest technology in its shopping experience. For example, a tourist at the duty-free store can enter some style preferences into a machine and head to a merged reality fitting room to try on shopping choices picked through machine learning. 

In the future, machine learning will be used to collect data on tourists so that the system can recommend not only shopping options but also tourist attractions and restaurants, the company said.

The entire duty-free store will be outfitted with hologram screens and media walls to complement the shopping experience.

On the first floor, video walls will decorate the K-Heritage Zone, which will introduce Korean history and scenery, and the K-pop Zone where visitors can interact with K-pop culture. Together, the zones will give tourists a glimpse into Korea’s past, present and future, according to the company.

HDC Shilla also plans to target young, trendy shoppers with a completely different layout for its stores, with flagship stores and products from up-and-coming Korean designers at the forefront. 

The store will strengthen its lifestyle product lineup to provide a complete experience in Korean culture and lifestyle shopping. The concept is called “4K-Product,” with emphasis on four categories: K-Cos(metics), K-Bag, K-Culture and K-Food & Health.

In addition, HDC Shilla plans to use its experience with its first duty-free store in Yongsan to set aside space for promoting products from small and medium companies, HDC Shilla said.

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)