Lotte Mart said on the 10th that after remodeling the Mataram store in Indonesia into a "hybrid store" that combines the strengths of wholesale and retail, both sales and customer numbers increased.
Lotte Mart's Mataram store, its second hybrid store in Indonesia, saw cumulative sales in the month after the renewal opening on the 5th of last month rise 60% from the same period before the renewal. The number of customers grew about fourfold.
The first hybrid store, the Bali location introduced in Aug. last year, also recorded increases through Feb. this year of 43% in cumulative sales and 241% in customer numbers.
Indonesia, where Lotte Mart operates, consists of about 12,000 islands, and due to constraints in logistics infrastructure, a wholesale distribution structure centered on small retailers has taken hold. Lotte Mart has operated wholesale stores for hotel, restaurant and cafe operators and retailers, and retail stores for general consumers.
However, since last year, Lotte Mart has been actively introducing "hybrid stores" that blend retail store content for general consumers into wholesale stores centered on business customers. That is because existing wholesale stores focus on bulk products, leaving general consumers with a relatively narrow range of choices.
Cha Woo-cheol, head of Lotte Mart and Super, said, "We will further evolve the successful models of the Bali and Mataram stores, and this year we plan to actively expand hybrid stores in major Indonesian cities."