Lotte Mart will create a special section for Korean products in Japanese shopping malls in collaboration with the Korea International Trade Association. Aiming to open a local store between June and September, a consultation meeting for selecting participating corporations will be held next month in Korea.
According to relevant industries on the 17th, Lotte Mart is preparing to open a special section for Korean products called "K-Square" in Japan's Aeon Mall in collaboration with the Korea International Trade Association. This cooperation is planned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Korea-Japan diplomatic normalization this year and to establish a foothold for promising domestic consumer goods corporations to enter the Japanese market, which is currently gaining attention due to the "fourth Korean Wave."
In addition to Lotte Mart, the collaboration also involves Daehan Juga, a Japanese product import distribution company, Sojitz Corporation, and Aeon Mall. A preliminary consultation meeting will be held next month with representatives from Sojitz Corporation and Aeon Mall, with plans to create a K-Square of about 150 pyeong in three regions: Tokyo, Osaka, and Shuto-ku, and to operate it for more than six months.
If selected as a participating corporation, Sojitz Corporation will purchase the products from that corporation for local selling. The items will include food, cosmetics, and daily necessities. The number of corporations to be recruited has not yet been determined.
A representative from the Korea International Trade Association noted, "Next month, local merchandise planners will visit Korea to hold face-to-face consultations with domestic manufacturing corporations seeking to enter the market, based on which participating companies will be selected, and plans to specify the store opening timing and locations will be developed."
Recently, there has been an increase in cases where Korean and Japanese distribution companies collaborate. Earlier, Hyundai Department Store operated a pop-up store called "The Hyundai Global" featuring domestic fashion brands at the Shibuya branch of Parco Department Store in Tokyo, and Shinsegae Department Store also showcased K-fashion at the Hankyu Umeda flagship store in Osaka. This marks the first time a hypermarket company has partnered with a Japanese distributor to open a store locally.
Aeon Group, the operator of Aeon Mall, is a major Japanese retail company established in 1926 and has ties with the Lotte Group. In 2022, Korea Seven, a subsidiary of Lotte Convenience Store, fully acquired the equity of Korea's Ministop, whose headquarters is Aeon Group.
In addition to Ministop, Aeon Group operates subsidiaries such as Aeon Mall, Aeon (hypermarket), Maxvalu (supermarket), Lawson (convenience store), and Aeon Cinema (multiplex), which has led to comparisons of its business structure with that of the Korean Lotte Group.
The strategy is similar. In 2019, Aeon Group collaborated with British retail tech company Ocado to establish a customer fulfillment center (CFC) based on robotics to handle online product orders and deliveries. Currently, a fulfillment center has opened in the Kanto region, with plans to open a total of three logistics centers by 2027.
Lotte Shopping also plans to invest 1 trillion won by 2032 to establish fulfillment centers in six locations nationwide in partnership with Ocado. This project is being undertaken by Lotte Mart. Industry insiders speculate that during Lee Dong-bin's visit to the Japanese Aeon Group affiliates in 2019, he may have gathered ideas for this project.
The "K-Square" project is also believed to have benefited from the exchanges between Lotte and Aeon Group. A representative from Lotte Mart disclosed that the project focuses on "building trust with local distribution channels, expanding related businesses through collaboration networks, and laying the groundwork for the entry and sales activation of Lotte Mart's private brand products in the Japanese market."