Last year, the throne of domestic department stores was occupied by Shinsegae Department Store's Seoul Gangnam branch. Lotte Department Store's Seoul Jamsil branch made a strong chase last year, surpassing an annual transaction of 3 trillion won for the first time, but it could not overturn the ranking.
According to the related industry on the 6th, the total transaction amount of 68 department stores operated by the top five department stores (Lotte, Shinsegae, Hyundai, Galleria, and AK) last year was recorded at 39.79 trillion won. The number of department stores, which was 70 in 2023, decreased to 68 with the closure of Lotte’s Masan branch and the transition of Hyundai's Busan branch to a shopping mall format.
The top place went to Shinsegae’s Seoul Gangnam branch, which recorded a transaction amount of 3.33 trillion won, a 7.3% increase from the previous year. Shinsegae's Gangnam branch has held the first place since 2017.
The second place went to Lotte's Seoul Jamsil branch. Last year, Lotte's Jamsil branch saw its transaction amount increase by approximately 11% from the previous year, entering the '3 trillion club.'
Following this, Shinsegae's Centum City branch surpassed Lotte's headquarters to take third place. The transaction amount gap between the two department stores is approximately 500 billion won. Located in Busan, Shinsegae Centum City attracted attention when it was established in 2009 as the world’s largest department store, featuring spa facilities. In 2023, it first exceeded a transaction amount of 2 trillion won. Last year, it brought in a large number of K-fashion and beauty brands targeting the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z, born between 1980 and 2004), absorbing demand from local youths and foreigners.
A Shinsegae department store official noted, "This year, the sales of the Daejeon Art and Science store are expected to exceed 1 trillion won, following the Busan and Daegu stores as the only regional branches."
In contrast, Lotte's headquarters located in Sogong-dong fell in rank. Since opening in 1979, it maintained the industry’s top spot for 37 years; however, it has since been pushed down due to the rise of super-large department stores and a slump in the Myeongdong commercial area. Notably, it was painful that a competitor store in Lotte's home ground of Busan surpassed Seoul's headquarters.
A Lotte Department Store official mentioned, "Currently, renovation work is in progress on the basement floor and first floor of the headquarters, and it seems that areas where operations could not continue due to continued renovations have had an impact."
Last year, there were 12 stores with an annual transaction amount exceeding 1 trillion won. Among these, all showed growth except for Lotte's Busan headquarters and Galleria’s Seoul luxury store. The store that saw the most growth was Lotte's Jamsil branch, which exhibited a growth rate of 10.8% compared to the previous year, while the worst-performing store was AK Plaza’s Bundang branch, which saw a transaction amount decrease of 14.1% from the previous year.
All stores of Galleria (5) and AK Plaza (4) experienced negative growth.
The polarization among stores has deepened further. 25% of the total transaction amount came from the top four stores. The combined transaction amount of the 12 stores with an annual transaction amount exceeding 1 trillion won was approximately 21 trillion won, accounting for 53% of the total. In contrast, the combined sales of the bottom 10 stores were merely in the 1.3 trillion won range.
Expectations prevail that a similar trend will continue this year. According to the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s '2025 Retail Industry Outlook Survey,' the retail market growth rate this year is expected to be 0.4% compared to the previous year, and the department store growth rate is projected to be only 0.3%.