Retailing
36. Lotte ambition (Jun 26th 2008 | SEOUL)
From The Economist print edition

A South Korean retailer plans a bold move into China

36-1-154
WOMEN in South Korea have a reputation for being some of the world’s most demanding shoppers. Keen bargain hunters, they have an eye for quality and if something falls short of their expectations they are not shy of venting their anger. They photograph shops or goods that fail to make the grade, and post pictures online with detailed and withering criticism; the offender may then be shunned by other buyers. So exacting are the demands of Korean customers that Western firms often solicit their opinions of new products before launching them. If you can please a Korean customer, the feeling goes, you can please anyone.
Accordingly, South Korean department stores provide some of the best service in the world. With a smile and a bow, sales assistants scurry after customers, attending to their whims while calming their tearful children. Lotte, South Korea’s biggest department-store chain, thinks its experience at home makes it ideally suited to serving the new rich in other fast-developing economies. In July it plans to open a huge department store in China, in the Wangfujing shopping district in Beijing. It has set an annual sales target for the store of $150m. The wealthiest customers will be granted special parking spots and will be guided around the store by personal attendants. (Appealing to the very rich works well for Lotte at home: its richest 1% of customers accounted for 17% of its $5.8 billion in sales last year.)

A. 어휘
retailing 小賣(소매). retailer 소매업자. reputation 評判(평판).
fall short of 부족하다. shy of 싫어하는. vent 배출하다, 배출구.
photograph 사진을 찍다. make the grade 標準(표준)에 이르다.
post pictures online 사진을 온라인에 공고하다. detailed 자세한.
withering 남을 다치게 하는, 시들게 하는. offender 범죄자, 위반자. shun 피하다.
exacting 가혹한. firm 회사. solicit 간청하다. product 제품.
launch 진출하다, 내보내다. accordingly 따라서, 그래서. assistant 점원, 보조자.
sales assistant 판매원. scurry 종종 달리다. attend to 돌보다. whim 변덕.
suited to 알맞은, 어울리는. economy [ 경제적 의미의] 국가. district 지역.
annual 1년의. grant 교부하다, 下賜(하사)하다. attendant 시중드는 사람, 수행원.
appeal 호소하다, 抗訴(항소)하다. account for 책임이 있다, 원인이 되다.

36-2-155
Lotte’s Beijing store will be a test of the company‘s plans to launch nine more stores in other big Chinese cities. It has asked consultants to analyse the Chinese market and help it choose a combination of foreign and local brands to appeal to Chinese shoppers. Lotte plans to sell South Korean cosmetics and clothes, banking on the appeal of Korean pop culture, which is popular throughout Asia. Lotte’s Beijing staff have been sent to Seoul to learn about its procedures, marketing and service.
But Lotte’s experience in Russia, where it opened its first foreign store last September, suggests that expanding abroad may prove harder than it thinks. It has had to spend a lot on advertising, has found it difficult to attract experienced staff for its Moscow store, and has cut its annual sales target from $140m to $120m. It hopes China will not prove such a tough nut to crack, since the cultural differences with South Korea will be less pronounced. “Many retailers find China tough,” says Yi Il-min, Lotte‘s director of international business development. “We’re quite comfortable.”

A. 어휘
cosmetics 화장품. bank on ...을 기대하다, ...을 의지하다. appeal 매력. staff 직원.
procedure 진행, 절차, 행위. expand 확장하다. nut 堅果(견과). crack 깨뜨리다.
pronounced 현저한, 강렬한.