韩国时尚公司加速东南亚线下扩张

Korea's fashion industry is accelerating its push into local markets, treating Southeast Asia as a hub for global business. A clear shift is emerging beyond simple cross-border online sales, as companies work to build local distribution networks and brand recognition. They are opening their own stores or establishing local corporations in Singapore and Taiwan, while running large-scale pop-up stores in Vietnam.
According to industry sources on the 19th, Shinsegae Tomboy, a subsidiary of Shinsegae International (031430), opened standalone stores for "Studio Tomboy" and "VOV" at the METRO department store on Orchard Road in Singapore on the 14th of this month. It is the first time the two brands have opened official overseas stores since their rebranding.
Shinsegae Tomboy chose Singapore based on its assessment that the country is a strategic base for Southeast Asian expansion. Singapore is a market with a large base of consumers with high purchasing power, where global fashion brands are concentrated. The recent growing interest in Korean culture, centered on K-pop and K-beauty, has also driven a rapid increase in demand for K-fashion.
The store openings were built on the success of a local pop-up store last year. In September last year, Shinsegae International collaborated with the METRO department store to run an 11-day pop-up store at the Paragon shopping mall, drawing more than 10,000 visitors and recording sales that exceeded its target. In particular, the response to Studio Tomboy and VOV surpassed expectations, leading to an official store proposal from METRO.
Musinsa is also expanding its business by establishing local corporations in Southeast Asia and the Greater China region. On the 7th of this month, it set up a Taiwan office and formed a dedicated local organization, with plans to open about 15 Musinsa Standard stores over the next five years. Taiwan is a market where Musinsa's global store sales have grown by an annual average of more than double over the past three years, and Taiwanese consumers also account for a high proportion of foreign tourists visiting its domestic stores. Based on this, Musinsa plans to simultaneously expand its online and offline businesses, spearheaded by Musinsa Standard.
W Concept opened a global pop-up store at the Hallyu Expo in Hanoi, Vietnam, early this month, providing a venue to introduce Korean fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands. The event, organized by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), featured 52 Korean fashion, beauty, and lifestyle companies.
At the event, popular Korean products such as jelly bags, capri pants, and sun cushions were showcased, along with various programs allowing visitors to experience Korean lifestyle. In a ticket draw for a Hallyu concert held ahead of the event, about 1,100 people applied within 30 minutes, drawing strong interest from locals. The company plans to use this pop-up as an opportunity to further expand overseas sales channels for Korean designer brands in Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia.
The industry expects competition to secure local bases to intensify further, as overseas interest in K-fashion rises following K-beauty. While the focus in the past was on expanding online sales, companies have recently concentrated on advancing their overseas expansion strategies by directly establishing corporations, opening offline stores, and cooperating with local distributors. "Southeast Asia is a market with great potential for K-fashion growth, given the strong influence of Hallyu and a high proportion of young consumers," an industry official said. "Securing not only brand recognition but also stable distribution networks and offline points of contact first will determine future competitiveness."