The Korea Federation of SMEs and Lotte Shopping Hold 'SME Win-Win Store Product Evaluation Meeting'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business (Chairman Kim Ki-moon) announced that it held a product evaluation meeting on the 16th at the KOSME Grand Hall with Lotte Shopping (CEO Kang Hee-tae) to select tenants for the SME Win-Win Center.

The SME Win-Win Center 'Dream Plaza' has been operating as a permanent SME-exclusive curated store since July 2014 at four Lotte Department Store locations: Main Store, Jamsil Branch, Yeongdeungpo Branch, and Busan Main Store. A total of 27 SME brands are currently housed there. KOSME and Lotte Shopping have held about 10 product evaluation meetings to select excellent SME products, and this time, about 40 companies in fashion accessories, household goods, and other categories participated in the evaluation.

The companies finally selected through the evaluation will be housed in the SME Win-Win Center in the first half of next year and will receive benefits such as preferential sales commissions and exemptions from interior, promotional, and labor costs. Notably, buyers from Lotte Shopping's online and offline business divisions, including Lotte Department Store, Lotte Mart, Lotte Super, and Lotte e-commerce, also attended the evaluation, providing various opportunities to expand sales for excellent domestic SMEs struggling with sales difficulties due to COVID-19.

Choo Moon-gap, Head of the Economic Policy Headquarters at KOSME, said, "The SME Win-Win Center is a good win-win model that promotes and sells excellent SME products by utilizing the distribution channels of Lotte Shopping, a specialized distribution company." He added, "Going forward, the Federation plans to continuously promote support projects linked to various sales channels such as home shopping and online exhibitions, in addition to department stores, to help SMEs that produce excellent products but face difficulties in market development due to COVID-19."

Meanwhile, considering the somewhat slower decline in COVID-19 infection spread in the metropolitan area compared to other regions, the evaluation meeting was conducted in compliance with social distancing level 2 quarantine guidelines, such as maintaining fewer than 50 people indoors and installing droplet-blocking partitions.