Lotte Mall Westlake Hanoi emerges as hotspot for young Vietnamese

[Photo by Lee Hyo-seok]

Lotte Mall Westlake Hanoi is emerging as a hotspot for Vietnam’s young consumers. The complex shopping mall is receiving favorable evaluations as it not only encompasses a shopping mall but also features a hotel, offices, an aquarium, and a cinema.

The interior of the shopping mall has been carefully designed, with spacious pathways secured, and the ground floor lobby left empty for rotating pop-up stores. Various family experiential spaces have also been incorporated.

Since its opening in September last year, the cumulative number of visitors to this complex shopping mall has surpassed 7 million. That amounts to an average of 30,000 visitors per day. Locally, it is known as a destination for Instagram-worthy photos.

The interior of the shopping mall adopts a Korean-style design. With a structure spanning from basement 1 to ground 5, the shopping mall’s ground floor lobby is kept empty to be used for pop-up stores, a departure from the typical setup of event booths by local companies.

The mall’s pathways are at least 12 meters wide, and the void from the center of the department store to the ceiling reaches 32 meters.

The introduction of the Escalator Express, which allows movement between two floors simultaneously, is a first in the local market.

Reflecting the demand of young citizens in Hanoi, the mall has attracted a plethora of SPA brands rather than luxury brands. Brands such as Zara, Uniqlo, MUJI, and Massimo Dutti are featured on the first floor.

“More than half of the actual shopping mall visitors are under 35 years old,” Lotte Department Store’s overseas business division head Kim Jun-young told Maeil Business Newspaper last weekend.

The attraction is not just shopping.

In addition to over 90 food and beverage outlets catering to family customers, experiential spaces such as an aquarium, a cinema, Champion 1250 indoor playground, and KidZania children’s vocational experience theme park are popular. This is largely due to its location in the Westlake area, which has a relatively affluent young population.

[Photo by Lee Hyo-seok]

Stores that sell products in the Westlake mall account for only 45 percent of the total, falling short of the typical department store ratio of over 80 percent. In place of the reduced number of stores, the mall space has been filled with visitor facilities such as children’s playgrounds and food and beverage eateries for K-food.

Meanwhile, Lotte Center Hanoi, evaluated as one of Lotte’s two growth pillars in Hanoi, is undergoing refurbishment to mark its 10th anniversary since opening.

Among the 187 stores in the department store, about 70 will be upgraded, and plans are in place for about 40 new stores to open.

Operational since 2014, Lotte Center Hanoi stands at 272 meters, making it the second tallest building in the capital. The 65-story Skywalk observatory attracts around 300,000 tourists annually.