‘Service vs Design vs Large Size’…The Three Kingdoms of Furniture at 3 Department Stores

Input 2021.03.11 06:45

The three department store companies are fiercely fighting to capture the domestic furniture market that has grown to 6 trillion won.

According to the distribution industry on the 11th, the three department stores are pursuing various strategies to gain victory in the domestic furniture and interior markets. Hyundai Department Store (069960)Group and Shinsegae (004170)Department stores have advanced furniture-specialized subsidiaries, Hyundai Livart and Casamia, respectively, and Lotte Department Store, which has no separate subsidiary, is expanding a living hall and editing shop that combines furniture and accessories.

According to Euromonitor, a global market research company, the domestic furniture and interior interior market grew from 4,295.9 billion won in 2010 to about 6.79 trillion won in 2020. Euromonitor predicts that this market will grow by more than 3% this year. This is because consumers’ interest in housing has increased as the overall income level has risen, and the coronavirus infection (Corona 19) has sparked a fever for decorating houses.

Each group’s furniture market strategy can be summarized as Hyundai, which strengthens’services’, Shinsegae focused on’design’, and Lotte, who competed with’biggerization’.

Among them, the Hyundai Department Store Group, which has the largest furniture business, is focusing on diversifying the services of Hyundai LIVART. The premium brand stores are organized around Hyundai Department Store branches, while the goal is to transform into a comprehensive interior service company.

Last month, Hyundai Department Store Mia opened a service-specialized store called’Libart Mia’ and introduced’Total Interior Service’. At the LIVART MIA store, which includes general furniture, kitchen furniture (Libart kitchen), bathroom (Libart bath), and lighting, you can receive professional consulting services from the detailed design and design expert “Livart Planner”.

In the future, Hyundai Department Store is considering additionally opening a comprehensive interior store of Hyundai LIVART, and introducing online and offline stores that provide complex services with affiliates related to life such as Hyundai L&C and Hyundai Rental Care (rental), a comprehensive construction material company.

I also jumped in the speed battle. In October of last year, a trial service was conducted to deliver sofa products the day after ordering in the metropolitan area, and recently, it introduced a one-day delivery service to all household furniture products and the American premium furniture brand Williams Sonoma products distributed by Hyundai LIVART. To this end, the scale of the distribution center has also been expanded from 72,000 square meters to 144,000 square meters, and the average daily shipment volume has also doubled.

Shinsegae Group put weight on’design’. By expanding the online distribution channels of the furniture brand Casamia, which it acquired in 2018, it is working hard to develop popular design products and attract new designer brands. It aimed at the MZ (millennials born in the 1980s and the Z generations born in the late 1990s) rather than the 40s and 50s, the big hands of the traditional furniture market.

An official from Casamia said, “We are trying to launch a brand with a young sense, targeting 2535 generations, an emerging consumer and potential furniture demand group, and to discover furniture and accessory brands of up-and-coming designers.” “We plan to strengthen online-oriented sales by making it a fun website that provides daily content and inducing visits,” he said.

Lotte Department Store, which does not have a separate furniture subsidiary, has started to increase its size to attract a variety of domestic and foreign furniture and interior accessory brands. Recently, the space of the Lotte Department Store Nowon branch was remodeled and transformed into a 3950m2 (approximately 1,200 pyeong) living brand specialty hall. It is the largest living space in Seoul and northeastern Gyeonggi-do.

It is the first domestic department store to set up a’Home Furnishing Studio,’ which is a collection of the brands of Fursys Group, a design furniture specialist. In addition, the mattress brand Slow, the home office brand Desker, and the sofa brand Iloso, etc. have entered the store. Additional stores such as Lewis Poulsen, a Danish lighting brand, will be opened until April.

In line with the characteristics of the department store industry, the high-end product lines will be presented in the form of an editorial shop (stores that collect products from various brands). Lotte Department Store opened the first Korean store of the British brand The Conran Shop in Gangnam. It sells designer furniture and accessories such as Karl Hansen and Herman Miller. It is scheduled to open the second Conran Shop in Dongtan in June.

In the name of the’Maison Archive’, an editing shop is also opened, which is a collection of exotic household goods brands. It is planned to be added to the Dongtan branch, which will open in June after a pilot operation at the headquarters in Sogong-dong, Seoul in April. Mamacomma, a brand featuring works of artists, and Ago, a lighting brand, Nomon, a watch specialist, Global Knife, a cooking knife brand, and Skampan, a Danish cooking utensil brand, will enter the store.