Lotte Department Store is targeting last-minute gift demand ahead of Chuseok, the Korean autumn harvest holiday.
The retailer said on the 20th that it has increased supply of its "hand-carry gift" sets, designed for easier portability, by 20% to 30% from a year earlier. The company views hand-carry gifts as a category where demand concentrates in the final days before a holiday. During this year's Lunar New Year gift season, desserts and health products — categories with a high share of hand-carry items — generated about half of their total sales in the week immediately before the holiday.
The hand-carry lineup includes "premium K-dessert" gift sets that reinterpret traditional Korean desserts in a modern style. Featured items include the Hanjeongseon Lotte Exclusive Set, which pairs nine fresh-fruit glutinous rice cakes with handmade ceramics, priced at 98,000 won; and the VASAK Chef Edition mixed gift set of fried laver, created through a collaboration between a leading Korean temple cuisine expert and a well-known chef, at 67,000 won. Also on sale is Kang Sung-eun Myeonggwa Sansuhwa, a 50,000-won set containing freshly roasted nuts and six varieties of thin crackers baked from soybean tofu dough.
The retailer is also offering "wellness gifts" aimed at health-conscious shoppers, including olive oil with high polyphenol content and a collaboration product with honey producer Ahn Sang-gyu. It has expanded value-for-money premium gifts priced under 100,000 won, including snacks such as beef jerky and caramel, as well as Lotte Hotel kimchi and salted pollack roe gift sets.
The company has also prepared benefits for last-minute buyers. Through the 23rd, customers spending 200,000 won or more on Chuseok gifts will earn 5% back in L.Point rewards, and about 40 popular hand-carry items including Korean beef, dried yellow corvina and fruit will be discounted by up to 40%.
Seventeen stores in the Seoul metropolitan area will run a "Chuseok instant delivery service," delivering gifts purchased by 6 p.m. on the 23rd to addresses within a 5-kilometer radius of the store in under three hours. "This year's Chuseok falls more than 10 days earlier than last year, so we have strengthened hand-carry gift sets for customer convenience and are running the instant delivery service until the day before the holiday begins," a Lotte Department Store official said.
