On the afternoon of the 30th of last month, on the first floor of Lotte World Mall in Jamsil, Songpa District, Seoul, visitors stood in a long line to register for entry to the "Pokemon Peach Blossom Paradise" pop-up store. As crowds swelled, some people began registering on behalf of others, prompting organizers to post a notice banning proxy sign-ups. After a long wait, entering a mobile phone number brought up a message on the kiosk screen: "1,172 groups waiting, estimated wait time 255 minutes."
Inside, plush toys, diaries and cards based on the Japanese animation franchise Pokemon were on display, and visitors clicked their camera shutters in front of them. The pop-up combines exhibition, hands-on activities and retail. A sales area sits at the end of the exhibition route, arranging the space so that visitors move naturally from viewing the display and experiencing the content to buying the products.
The strength of the Pokemon intellectual property is one driver of the turnout, but what makes visitors willing to wait more than four hours is an on-site experience that online shopping cannot replicate. The same products can be bought over the internet, but seeing the characters in person, taking photos and becoming part of a fandom is possible only in a physical space.
The competitive benchmark for retailers is shifting from how many products they can put on shelves to what kind of experience they can offer customers. The reasoning is that drawing crowds now requires content that keeps customers on site and entertained, not simply a space that sells goods. The longer customers stay, the greater the chance they will buy food and beverages and related items, so retailers are pushing to expand rest, cultural and hands-on areas even at the cost of selling space.
A prime example came when Shinsegae Group renovated E-Mart's Wolgye branch into Starfield Market Wolgye, creating a customer lounge in what had been the store's top-selling core space instead of installing display stands. An E-Mart official said the move is "a strategy to raise the store's overall drawing power and related sales by increasing customer dwell time and repeat visits, even if it means cutting selling space for now."
Experience has become more important to consumption in step with the rapid growth of online shopping. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's monthly report on sales trends at major retailers for July, online accounted for 60.8% of total retail sales, a record high. Judged purely on the act of buying a product, including price and convenience, offline stores can no longer easily hold an edge over online. That makes it all the more important for offline retail spaces to create a reason for consumers to visit.
The era in which experience determines consumption is expected to arrive faster as artificial intelligence moves deeper into the shopping process. In its report "Shopping in the AI era: Redefining the store for a new age," global consulting firm McKinsey said that as AI takes over routine purchases and product searches, the number of store visits may fall but the value of a single visit could rise, adding that shoppers are likely to head to stores for differentiated experiences they cannot get online.
