Customers at the exclusive Shinsegae department store in the Gangnam district of Seoul prefer to display their wealth discreetly. But their high spending was exposed to the wider world when it revealed annual sales had topped $2bn in 2021 — the highest turnover for a single store in the world. It outpaced even Harrods in London, which before the coronavirus pandemic had long held the world’s top spot.
Global travel restrictions partly explain the success of department stores such as Shinsegae across Asia. Chinese and Korean luxury consumers previously reserved their biggest shopping sprees for European holidays. Covid-19, however, prompted them to pick up high-priced items at local department stores, which were unaffected by lockdowns.
