Editor’s Note
As luxury spending increasingly moves online for fashion items, department stores are doubling down on high jewelry—a category where in-person experience remains paramount. This strategic pivot highlights the enduring value of physical retail in an omnichannel world.
As department store luxury shopping demand shifts from fashion goods to jewelry, major department stores are accelerating their efforts to strengthen their high jewelry brand lineups. With the rapid growth of the online luxury market, demand for bags, shoes, and fashion has dispersed to e-commerce. It is analyzed that department stores are strategically focusing on high jewelry, targeting the fact that luxury jewelry is difficult to handle online.
Major domestic department stores are actively attracting high jewelry brands recently. Shinsegae Department Store expanded its luxury jewelry section on the 2nd floor of the new main building. Capitalizing on the growth of the ultra-high-end jewelry market, known as high jewelry, it has more than doubled the number of luxury jewelry brands, including Pomellato and Messika, representing Italy and France.
Lotte Department Store is also expanding its high jewelry brands at its main store. It simultaneously opened Van Cleef & Arpels and Graff stores on the first floor of the main store, aiming directly at the high jewelry demand in the Gangbuk area. Furthermore, it plans to hold a ‘High Jewelry Fair’ worth 38 billion won until the 6th of next month, with the goal of making such events regular and establishing itself as a ‘high jewelry holy land’.
Van Cleef & Arpels is also scheduled to open in The Hyundai Seoul. Hyundai Department Store is pursuing the opening of not only Van Cleef & Arpels but also the Italian jewelry brand ‘Damiani’ at The Hyundai Seoul.
Galleria Department Store, known as a luxury mecca, is no exception. Its Seoul luxury hall has consistently focused on and built competitiveness in luxury jewelry and watch stores. It notably expanded the jewelry and watch stores from the East building’s B1 and 1st floors to the 2nd floor in 2021, and last year created a jewelry and watch zone on the West building’s 1st floor. Recently, the East building welcomed ‘Repossi 1839’, a Swiss luxury watch brand under the LVMH group, and ‘Qeelin’, a fine jewelry brand under the Kering group.
In the first half of the year, the opening of the Swiss luxury watch brand ‘Moser & Cie.’ and the German gemstone brand ‘Wellendorff’ at the Seoul luxury hall is anticipated. Next month, the luxury watch brand ‘Tudor’ is scheduled to open at the Suwon Gwanggyo branch. In the second half of the year, luxury watch brands ‘Hublot’ and ‘Grand Seiko’, along with the Italian fine jewelry brand ‘Pomellato’, will open in sequence.
Preference for high jewelry is also increasing. According to Lotte Department Store, last year’s luxury jewelry sales grew by over 20% compared to the previous year, and this year (January-March) also saw growth of over 35%. In the case of Galleria Department Store, luxury jewelry and watch sales have increased by an average of 21% annually over the past five years. Particularly this year (January-February), sales increased by over 30% compared to the same period last year, showing high growth.
Jewelry is less subject to trends than fashion/goods, and as customers tired of commonplace luxury bags turn their eyes to luxury jewelry, high jewelry has been in the spotlight recently.
In particular, ultra-high-end jewelry product groups are an area that can only be handled through the traditional offline channel of department stores, making it a strategic category to attract customers to department stores. In reality, the online luxury market size grows every year, dispersing department store luxury demand. According to market research firm Euromonitor, the size of the domestic online luxury market grew from 1.437 trillion won in 2019 to about 2.4425 trillion won in 2022. Last year, it is estimated to have reached 2.6405 trillion won.