In April last year, a popup store featuring K-beauty and K-fashion brands opened on Stage 2, the area with the highest foot traffic, at Isetan Shinjuku, Japan's top department store by sales. The ability to set up a store in this core space of a department store visited by tens of thousands of people daily and showcase products to locals and foreign tourists was thanks to the full support of Shinsegae Department Store's Hyperground.
Shinsegae Hyperground is a global platform supporting the overseas expansion of promising domestic K-beauty and K-fashion brands. Since making its debut at Thailand's Siam Discovery shopping mall in November 2023, it has operated 12 popups across five countries, including Japan, France, Singapore, and the United States. It has gained popularity by entering landmark facilities located in core commercial districts of each country, such as Tokyo's Isetan Department Store, Paris' Le Printemps, and New York's Hudson Yards. Additional popups are planned to be operated in the U.S., Europe, and Southeast Asia regions by the end of this year.
Hyperground is the embodiment of Shinsegae Department Store's operational strategy, built on decades of know-how accumulated in the domestic distribution market. Once a popup location is selected, it screens for items that can attract the most popularity locally and supports every process, from popup store contracts to product logistics and interior design of the event venue. This is the driving force behind attracting crowds of thousands at each popup location and enabling participating companies to achieve results such as signing supply contracts with local distributors.
Hyperground, which started with K-fashion brand popups, has diversified its participating companies to include K-beauty since last year and is expanding its reach to North America and Europe, the birthplaces of related industries. The popup operated at Paris' Le Printemps Department Store in July last year featured 13 K-beauty brands, and in addition to product sales, it set up a specialized space where visitors could experience Korean traditional culture, earning high acclaim from locals.
In response to the enthusiastic local reaction, additional popups were also held in Japan and Thailand. In particular, an ultra-large-scale popup covering fashion, beauty, and food was operated at Thailand's Central Department Store in July this year.
As popup successes have continued, the industry is recognizing Hyperground as a "launchpad" for entering overseas markets. This is because they are feeling that brand awareness has increased locally after operating popups, beyond simple product linkage. In this process, Shinsegae Department Store expects to strengthen its brand image as a hub platform for K-fashion and K-beauty.
Shinsegae Department Store unveiled the new BI (Brand Identity) of Hyperground last month. It has reorganized Hyperground into one entity, which had previously been operated separately as an offline space introducing promising K-brands at domestic department stores and a platform helping domestic brands expand overseas. The new BI was applied domestically at the Cheonan Asan store operated last month, and internationally at the New York Hudson Yards popup that opened in early this month.
Park Sang-eon, Senior Executive Vice President of Shinsegae Department Store's New Retail Division, said, "Going forward, through Hyperground, we will discover new brands based on Shinsegae's unique product planning capabilities and distribution know-how in domestic and international markets, and present differentiated content to customers."
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