Hyundai Pangyo becomes first in Gyeonggi to reach $1.4bn in sales

(Hyundai Department Store)

Hyundai Department Store Co.’s Pangyo branch in Gyeonggi Province has joined the 2 trillion won ($1.4 billion) annual sales club.

This marks the first time a department store outside Seoul and Busan has recorded annual sales of 2 trillion. It also set a new record for the shortest time taken to reach the milestone after opening.

Hyundai Department Store announced on Sunday that cumulative sales at its Pangyo branch surpassed 2 trillion won as of Saturday. The milestone was achieved just 10 years and four months after the store opened in August 2015.

The Pangyo branch had already set a record in December 2020 by becoming the fastest department store in Korea to exceed 1 trillion won in annual sales after opening, and its growth has since accelerated further.

While overall sales growth for department stores nationwide stood at around 2 percent through October this year, Pangyo’s sales rose 16 percent.

Hyundai Department Store attributed the rapid achievement of its Pangyo store to its industry-leading luxury merchandise competitiveness, a strong customer base drawn from a wide regional catchment area, and Hyundai’s differentiated content strategy.

Since opening in 2015, the Pangyo store has steadily added flagship luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Tiffany & Co., followed later by Hermès and Dior — many of them debuting in the province for the first time.

The branch now hosts 96 luxury brands, the most of any Hyundai Department Store location. Sales of luxury watches and jewelry surged 51.4 percent this year, far outpacing the store’s overall growth rate.

The Pangyo store is increasingly attracting shoppers from across the wider metropolitan region. The share of sales generated by those traveling from areas more than 10 kilometers away rose from 38.6 percent in 2015 to 55.6 percent this year.