Lotte Hi-Mart to directly employ 1,400 sales staff

[Courtesy of Lotte Hi-Mart]

Lotte Hi-Mart, a major electronics retailer in South Korea, announced on Sunday that it will directly employ over 1,400 sales staff at its stores nationwide.

According to Lotte Hi-Mart’s announcement on Sunday, the company will finalize the hiring process soon, with the new employees set to be deployed to stores across the country starting July 1.

Most of the newly hired employees will be experienced professionals, with some new recruits included. A significant number of these experienced employees were previously dispatched workers for major brands such as Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., where they handled promotional activities.

Lotte Hi-Mart’s decision to increase labor costs by directly employing these workers is driven by the need to comply with the law.

In late 2020, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) found that Lotte Hi-Mart violated the law by having employees dispatched from electronics companies sell products from other companies.

For instance, a Samsung Electronics promotional worker might end up selling a competitor’s product while assisting a customer in the store. At that time, the KFTC issued a corrective order and imposed a fine of 1 billion won ($720,000) on Lotte Hi-Mart.

“This fundamental change is in line with government guidelines for managing promotional staff and aims to strengthen the core competitiveness of our electronics retail business,” said a company official.

Furthermore, the company indicated that direct employment is essential for developing new business models beyond selling major brand products.

In response to the slump in the electronics retail industry, Lotte Hi-Mart is accelerating its efforts to enhance home appliance and home care services and to develop its private label (PB) products.