Five Promising Alley Commercial Areas Including Yangjaecheon-gil and Seonyuro Un to Be Developed into Seoul's Representative Local Brands

Yangjaecheon-gil, Hapmart, Jangchungdan-gil, Seonyuro-un, Oryu Beodeul 5 Commercial Districts to Receive Focused Development for 3 Years Starting This Year
This Year, Branding Directions Set Reflecting Each District's Characteristics... Securing Competitiveness Through Space Creation and Merchant Capacity Building

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 20th that it will officially launch the ‘Local Brand Commercial District Development Project’ from September to develop promising alleys into representative commercial districts of Seoul.

In April, Seoul selected five commercial districts: Yangjaecheon-gil (Seocho-gu), Hapmartteu (Mapo-gu), Jangchungdan-gil (Jung-gu), Seonyuro-un (Yeongdeungpo-gu), and Oryu Beodeul (Guro-gu). The city plans to invest up to 3 billion KRW per district over three years, along with various facilities, infrastructure, and content, to transform these areas into commercial districts that attract citizens.

The ‘Local Brand Commercial District Development Project’ is a business Seoul has been promoting since this year under the catchphrase “The alley must live for the local economy to thrive.” It aims to launch alley brands that reflect local characteristics by comprehensively supporting ‘hardware’ such as facilities and infrastructure, ‘software’ such as content and community, and ‘humanware’ such as strengthening small business owners’ capabilities. The goal is to create spaces where people want to stay and experience a local lifestyle, rather than just places for simple consumption.

In the first year of commercial district development, Seoul will focus on increasing awareness and consumer interest by setting branding directions for each of the five selected districts after understanding consumer perceptions and demands, and by organizing space and hosting events. Through visit discount promotions and store environment improvement consulting, the city will contribute to the actual sales increase of merchants and also put effort into strengthening the capabilities of local small business owners and organizing merchant groups, which are key to commercial district development.

Seoul analyzed consumer perceptions, reactions, expectations for commercial district development, the latest consumption trends, and characteristics of each district to develop branding concepts including keywords and stories based on these results. The city plans to implement various projects to internalize the branding concepts in the districts and create BI (Brand Identity) elements through close consultation with merchants, residents, and other stakeholders.

Reflecting the branding concepts of each district, the ‘Community Space,’ a platform where lifestyles can be experienced, will be fully operated from October. This space will host various events, exhibitions, and one-day classes that anyone?consumers visiting the alley commercial districts or residents living there?can enjoy, making it a place full of attractions. It will also allow visitors to experience and taste merchants’ products and food and beverages, encouraging sales.

Additionally, to raise awareness of local commercial districts, about 15 ‘Local Culture Events’ will be held from October to December. Furthermore, discount promotions for takeout orders through food delivery platforms are currently underway, and visit discount promotions targeting lifestyle service sectors such as hair salons, flower shops, and laundries will begin in October.

Various support measures have also been introduced to enhance the self-sustainability of merchants, which will be the core of local commercial district development, and to ensure the competitiveness of the commercial districts themselves. Previously, to promote efficient commercial district development, Seoul supported the organization of merchant associations and the revision of regulations in three districts (Yangjaecheon-gil, Hapmartteu, Seonyuro-un) where merchant associations did not exist.

The ‘Branding Action Learning Program,’ which selects promising merchants and helps them grow into attractive local brands, will start in October. A total of 10 small business owners (2 per district) will be selected to undergo six weeks of theoretical and practical training, including brand diagnosis and analysis → brand establishment and strengthening strategy development → expert coaching (including reimbursement of actual expenses). In December, participants will have the opportunity to directly present their branding results to consumers through a pop-up store.

Environmental improvement consulting will also be conducted for about 100 stores to support the reorganization of aging and disorganized store spaces. The plan is to upgrade these areas from deteriorated alley commercial districts to districts that consumers want to visit. Experts will visit stores directly to identify urgent improvement items and provide consulting on effective management methods. At the same time, store owners will be provided with self-diagnosis checklists and cleaning and organizing supplies to continuously maintain and improve their environments.

Meanwhile, Seoul plans to thoroughly implement detailed projects to establish the commercial district foundation, which is the first phase this year, analyze the effectiveness of the project such as sales increase, secure commercial district self-sustainability in 2023, and systematically achieve the creation of an ecosystem for sustainable operation in 2024.

Im Geun-rae, Head of Seoul City’s Commercial District Revitalization Division, said, “For the local economy to thrive, alleys must live, and changes in the local economy must now be led by key stakeholders including consumers, merchants, and residents. Seoul has taken the first step to nurture alley local brands into Seoul’s representative commercial districts, and we will provide focused support so that the selected districts can establish themselves as representative brands of Seoul with sustainability and self-sustainability.”