Lotte World Tower wins awards in challenging times

By Doug Newhouse |

Lotte Tower in Seoul smallLotte Duty Free’s $3bn 555m World Tower duty free store in Seoul has won three globally recognised and prestigious design awards for the first time in the Korean duty free business.

 

Besides winning the ‘2015 Good Design Awards’ in the Environments category, the retailer also swept the board with three world-class prestigious design awards in the USA.

 

Sun-wook Jang, President of Lotte Duty Free said: “Lotte Duty Free World Tower has contributed a lot in promoting the new duty free shopping environment. I’m so glad that we won the prestigious global design awards for the first time as a Korean duty free shop.”

 

The retailer says it is the first duty free shop in Korea to win the Good Designs Awards prize, although it should be said that celebrations related to this high recognition are doubtless a little less than normal, considering Lotte actually lost its duty free licence back in November of last year.

 

[Lotte Duty Free] Interior of the Worldtower store (3)

[Lotte Duty Free] Interior of the Worldtower store (2)

Lotte Duty Free opened its $3bn World Tower branch in the southern Seoul Chamshil area of Gangnam on October 16, 2015 – as reported at the time: http://www.trbusiness.com/regional-news/asia-pacific/3bn-role-model-store-opens-in-seoul/57059

The duty free industry in Seoul was shocked at the time, although TRBusiness understands that Lotte has since been investigating whether it will be possible to transfer one of its other Seoul duty free retail licences to the World Tower 11,000sq m operation to maintain its ‘downtown duty free’ status which it still holds at this time.

 

But this aside, few could argue that the building itself is not a huge achievement and this has been recognised with these latest awards. South Korea’s largest duty free retailer says that the interior design was optimised for shopping right from the very beginning, with high ceilings to allow brands to express offers and cultures.

 

In addition, the retailer has installed ‘world-class’ LED screens to support the environmental design in harmony with the digital era.

 

In a statement, the retailer said: “The Media Wall (large LED screens), the Column (cylindrical LED screens surrounding the columns) and the Cylinder (LED screens hanging on the ceiling) make the place new and trendy.

 

[Lotte Duty Free] Interior of the Worldtower store (1)

[Lotte Duty Free] Interior of the Worldtower store (4)

Within the store, chiffon and indirect lighting has been used to create an effect of ‘the sun shining through white clouds’. Other features include a large number of HD TV screens located around the store, providing details of products and special promotions. At the opening these featured exclusive promotional advertisements featuring the top model Su Hyun Kim.

“The company has invested more than three thousand million Won ($2.4m) for installation [and] six hundred million Won ($498,174) for the initial stage of content development, which needs a steady investment.”

 

Lotte adds that the three LED installations are integrated throughout the shop space, with the video content alternating throughout the day to offer entertainment, local heritage and natural environmental content.

 

The company concluded: “The distinct shopping experience of [the] Lotte Duty Free World Tower store which presents the new cultural experience beyond shopping has been highly valued in terms of design by the awards.

 

“Besides, the company has won the Bronze prize of HUB Prize (USA) in [the] Brand Experience category and [the] Merit award of Graphis Competition (USA) in Innovative Environment category.”

 

 

 

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