Korean department stores ride on K-culture boom to target overseas market...

(Hyundai Department Store)

South Korean department stores are riding the wave of the K-culture boom, using fashion and beauty pop-up stores to expand into Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Hyundai Department Store announced on Sunday that it will launch a three-month pop-up at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi’s Zhonggang branch in Taichung, Taiwan.

Shin Kong Mitsukoshi is the top department store chain in Taiwan, attracting around 100 million visitors annually. The Zhonggang branch is the highest-grossing department store in the country.

Earlier, Hyundai Department Store held a pop-up at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi location in Taipei in October 2025, achieving the highest sales among all pop-ups in the chain’s history.

Based on that success, it has planned additional pop-ups and may consider opening permanent stores depending on performance. The company is also planning to launch a pop-up store in Hong Kong as early as next year.

Korean department stores are also actively entering the Japanese market.

Hyundai Department Store has already opened a regular store in Japan and plans to open a flagship store in Omotesando within the first half of this year.

Shinsegae Department Store is also expanding globally, operating pop-up stores in Japan, Paris, and Thailand.

In July 2025, it held a K-beauty pop-up at the Printemps department store in Paris and is currently considering additional pop-ups.

Lotte Department Store, in the meantime, is focusing on its direct brick-and-mortar footprint in Southeast Asian markets such as Vietnam, where it already maintains a significant presence and is reviewing plans for additional store openings.