Winter Clothing Sales Start in October
Fish-shaped Pastries and Steamed Buns Appear in Convenience Stores
Ski Season Passes Introduced on E-commerce Platforms
The distribution industry has expanded sales of winter products as the temperature drops sharply in the morning and evening, increasing the daily temperature range. Recently, with abnormal weather shortening the autumn season and forecasts predicting an unusually cold winter, retailers are targeting consumers who are preparing for the cold season in advance.
According to the industry on the 28th, Emart decided to offer up to 30% discounts on various heating products such as hot packs, electric mats, and winter blankets until the 31st. Emart had originally planned the discount event for these heating products next month. However, due to the forecast of severe cold this winter, the discount event was moved up by about a month. Emart is also reported to have secured inventory faster than usual in anticipation of increased demand for thermal underwear. An Emart representative said, "Sales of electric heating pads this month increased by 27% compared to the same period last year, and sales of winter children's clothing and indoor wear each rose by 10%."
Earlier, Lotte Department Store held a winter bedding event for ten days starting from the 18th. Although the event was held a week earlier than last year, sales increased by about 25%. As sales of winter products increased, Lotte Department Store opened a premium outerwear specialty store covering 840㎡ (about 254 pyeong) on the 4th floor of the main store's AvenueL. A Lotte Department Store official said, "We plan to gradually move up winter events and showcase a wide variety of practical winter outerwear with heat retention functions and goose bedding."
Lotte Homeshopping also advanced the scheduling of heating appliances such as heaters by a month compared to last year and has been selling them since early this month. Additionally, as orders for winter bedding increased by 70% compared to the previous month, Lotte Homeshopping started operating a premium bedding specialty program from the day before. On the 2nd of next month, they plan to exclusively launch the French furniture and living brand 'POPUS' wool bedding set through the 'Choi Yura Show.' Hyundai Homeshopping also advanced the expansion of winter product lineups by two weeks and has doubled the number of live broadcasts for heating devices since mid-month.
Convenience stores have also quickly expanded their winter product lines. Emart24 has been selling 13 types of winter clothing such as padded vests, scarves, thermal underwear, and fleece leggings since the 20th. GS25 introduced three types of hot packs in collaboration with the animation 'Powerpuff Girls' and gloves and earmuffs released together with Vivian starting from the 25th. Seven Eleven is selling products including the Hwarotbul Premium Blanket, Dongkook Pharmaceutical's Madeca Moisture Lip Essence, and Kyungnam Pharmaceutical's Lemona Moisturizing Lip Balm.
Convenience store food items have also shifted to winter mode. In particular, CU launched six types of restaurant meal kits (RM) in early this month in collaboration with 'Jungang Haejang,' a hangover soup specialty restaurant near Samseong Station. This strategy aims to attract customers' tastes with warm soup dishes as the season gets colder. In addition, CU has stocked representative winter snacks such as bungeoppang (fish-shaped pastry), roasted sweet potatoes, and hotteok (sweet pancakes) on shelves and is conducting various discount events.
The e-commerce industry is also accelerating winter marketing. Gmarket, a subsidiary of Shinsegae Group, is conducting a promotion for the 'Vivaldi Park 24/25 Season Pass' targeting the winter ski season since mid-month. A Gmarket official said, "Since the promotion is themed around skiing, a popular winter sport, it is attracting high interest."
Consumers also seem to be showing interest in winter products. According to an analysis of Google Trends indices for major winter products in South Korea, the index for padded jackets rose gradually after recording 54 on the 14th and reached a peak of 100 on the 23rd. The index for blankets was only 51 on the 15th but surged to 100 on the 24th. The Google Trends index is a big data-based indicator that quantifies public interest by indexing the number of searches for specific keywords by Google users in a particular country or worldwide. The highest search volume during a specific period is set to 100, and relative values are calculated and displayed for other times.
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