"Reflecting Customer Preferences from Production" Lotte Mart Room by Home, Eye-Catching New Interior Products

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Lotte Mart's home and living specialty brand 'Room by Home' is presenting 67 new products for the 2020 Spring·Summer (SS) season with the main theme of 'Our Home' through a customer participation design contest.

The 'Our Home Series' introduced by Room by Home this time was designed to reflect the meaning of re-examining the importance of family through changes from multi-person households to small families of 1-2 people, enjoying solo travel (honhaeng), solo movies (hongyeong), exploring restaurants alone, and enjoying life with pets.

It is characterized by being designed with the motif of home to provide comfort in ordinary daily life. A total of 67 items were released, including tableware, cutting boards, aprons, cushions, and other home fabric products so that anyone can easily prepare and arrange meals. Home fabric products include seat cushions and aprons, and cushions, bowls (gonggi), and rice bowls (daejip) are prepared. Handle bowls and sharing plates for solo dining are also introduced.

The products were developed through the 'Lotte Mart Design Contest.' Customers themselves participated from the early stages of product development, rigorously proposing shapes, patterns, and specifications. The design contest involving customers, which started in 2016, is now in its fifth year and has released about 20 products each season.

Han Ji-hyun, head of Lotte Mart's Home Division, said, “Room by Home's design contest is a good example showing that product development is not only the domain of distributors or manufacturers,” and added, “We will do our best to respond to the changing market by expanding opportunities for customers themselves to participate in the product development process they want.”