Shinsegae(004170) Group's mixed-use shopping mall "Starfield," which has been developed over 10 years, is expanding its reach as the group's flagship offline brand. After starting in Hanam, Gyeonggi, and building its name with additional locations in Goyang, Anseong and Suwon, the Starfield brand has recently been used across different spaces such as big-box supermarkets, downtown commercial facilities and new-town living areas.
A brand created to champion a new type of shopping mall in the past has now taken root as a key asset Shinsegae Group uses when unveiling new offline spaces.
According to the retail industry on the 31st, Starfield, which Shinsegae Group first introduced in Hanam, Gyeonggi, in Sept. 2016, marks its 10th anniversary next month. Starfield Hanam, billed as the nation's first "shopping theme park," brought together not only shopping but also dining, sports, entertainment and rest areas in one place, and introduced wide common areas, free parking and pet-friendly entry. Cumulative visitors through August this year reached 250 million. One in 10 purchasing customers visited the Hanam store more than 40 times over the past 10 years.
The name "Starfield" is known to have been coined by Chung Yong-jin, chairman of Shinsegae Group. It combines "Star," meaning a space that gives customers dreams and hope and is loved by everyone, and "Field," meaning a "yard" where people can gather and have fun. It carries the intent to create a place where people come to spend time beyond simply buying goods.
Shinsegae Group has steadily expanded Starfield since opening the Hanam location in 2016. That same year, it renamed the existing COEX Mall as "Starfield COEX Mall," and opened locations in Goyang in 2017, Anseong in 2020 and Suwon in 2024. Starting in 2018, it introduced "Starfield City," a scaled-down, neighborhood-focused format, in Wirye, Bucheon and Myeongji in Busan. Starfield Suwon drew about 19 million visitors in its first year after opening, proving its pulling power.
Lately, group-level efforts to extend the Starfield brand have accelerated. A prime example is E-MART's "Starfield Market." E-MART renovated its existing Jukjeon store in 2024, applying Starfield's stay-type space strategy and changing the name to Starfield Market. Last year, it sequentially converted the Ilsan, Dongtan and Gyeongsan stores to the same format, and on the 27th it opened the Wolgye store, the first in Seoul, expanding to five locations.
Shinsegae Property also rolled out the city-center brand "Starfield Avenue" and the community-anchored brand "Starfield Village" last year. Starfield Avenue, opened at Gran Seoul in Jongno, Seoul, was built around F&B in a space of about 1,900 pyeong to target office worker demand.
Starfield Village Unjeong in Paju, Gyeonggi, combines not only shopping and dining but also education, medical and community functions. Moving away from the past approach of securing large sites to build new Starfields, the brand is being segmented by trade area and location into formats such as "Market," "Avenue" and "Village."
Results are emerging. In the first half, sales at the four Starfield Market stores rose 28% from a year earlier, far outpacing E-MART's overall sales growth rate of 2.7% in the same period. In particular, the three stores converted last year—Ilsan, Dongtan and Gyeongsan—saw average increases in second-quarter sales and visitors of 79.5% and 42.4%, respectively, from a year earlier. The share of customers staying more than three hours also increased by an average of 90.8%.
Starfield Village Unjeong likewise surpassed 2.1 million cumulative visitors within 100 days of opening. About 70% of visitors were tallied as nearby residents, prompting assessments that it demonstrates the potential of the neighborhood-type Starfield.
The scale of Shinsegae Property, which operates Starfield, is also steadily growing. Revenue increased from 233 billion won in 2021 to 310.8 billion won in 2022, 375.7 billion won in 2023 and 430 billion won in 2024. Over the same period, operating profit rose from 20.2 billion won to 26.3 billion won, 94.6 billion won and 137.3 billion won. Last year, it recorded 766.4 billion won in revenue and 467.4 billion won in operating profit, the highest ever. Although one-off gains such as the sale of equity in Starfield Cheongna and valuation gains on financial assets were reflected, growth continued even excluding these.
A Shinsegae Property official said, "Over the past 10 years, Starfield has shifted the center of shopping malls from 'purchasing' to 'staying,' driving changes in customer experience," adding, "We will continue to roll out new spaces and content, and grow into a lifestyle hub that enriches customers' weekdays and weekends."