Shorter Chuseok holiday drives shoppers to department stores, lifting sales about 20%

Major department stores and outlets post roughly 20% sales gains

Fewer days off concentrate domestic spending as overseas travel declines

Hypermarkets also see strong demand for holiday food and ready-made meals

Lotte Premium Outlets' Uiwang branch in Hagui-dong, Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province. [Provided by Lotte Department Store]

Department stores and outlet malls posted sales gains of around 20% during this year's Chuseok holiday, as a shorter break kept more consumers at home and channeled spending into domestic shopping and leisure.

According to the retail industry, Lotte Department Store's sales rose about 20% during the holiday period from Thursday through Sunday compared with last year's Chuseok holiday period (Oct. 5–8). The number of paying customers increased 15%. By product category, children's goods led with a 25% gain, followed by food and beverage, beauty, and leisure and golf, each up 20%.

Shinsegae Department Store posted a 21.6% sales increase over the same period. Customer traffic rose 14% and the average transaction value climbed about 5%. Luxury jewelry was the standout, surging 73%, while luxury watches rose 50.7%, large home appliances 50.2%, and living and bedding goods 45.1%. Children's goods gained 24.3% and food and beverage 21.5%.

Hyundai Department Store recorded a 20.3% sales increase. By category, luxury jewelry led at 45.6%, followed by young fashion at 31.8% and sports at 20.9%.

Outlet malls also saw gains. Lotte Outlets and Malls reported a 5% overall sales increase, with children's goods up 15% as more families visited. Food and beverage sales rose more than 10%. Lotte World Mall in Jamsil drew about 750,000 visitors during the holiday, up 10,000 from the same period last year.

Hyundai Department Store's four premium outlet locations posted a 22% sales increase compared with last year's Chuseok holiday, with customer traffic up 11%. By category, sports led at 55%, followed by traditional casual wear at 38% and luxury goods at 20%.

At Shinsegae Simon Premium Outlets, vehicle entries across all locations rose more than 17% year-on-year during the three days surrounding and including Chuseok day — Thursday through Saturday. Traditional casual wear and food and beverage both recorded double-digit sales growth.

The broad-based gains reflect a concentration of shopping and leisure activity at home during the holiday. Last year's Chuseok break stretched to seven days, incorporating National Foundation Day and Hangul Day, which dispersed consumer spending toward overseas travel and other activities.

Meanwhile, hypermarkets saw sales rise as well, driven mainly by holiday food and ready-made meals.

E-mart said sales rose 9.6% when comparing the three days around this year's Chuseok with the same period last year. Nearly all categories posted gains: seafood led at 21.7%, followed by fruit at 18.7%, deli items at 16.3%, vegetables at 15.2%, meat at 14.9%, alcoholic beverages at 10.4% and ready-made meals at 8.2%.

Lotte Mart's average daily sales during the Chuseok holiday rose 3% from the same period a year earlier. Refrigerated home meal replacement products surged 31% and frozen home meal replacements climbed 15%.

Holiday food on display at a hypermarket in Seoul on Wednesday. [Yonhap]

soho0902@heraldcorp.com