Baby rebound sends department stores chasing family wallets
Rising births and bigger family budgets are driving double-digit growth in children’s goods as retailers expand premium brands, programs and memberships.
Customers shop at a New Balance Kids store at Shinsegae Department Store’s Uijeongbu branch in Gyeonggi, where the retailer opened a kids’ sports megastore and a premium baby gear zone in September.SHINSEGAE DEPARTMENT STORE
A rebound in births is turning families with children into some of Korea’s most courted shoppers.
Department stores are refitting their children’s sections with premium brands and rolling out memberships for people willing to spend on their youngest family members, and sales of children’s products have grown by double digits this year, industry sources said.
Shinsegae Department Store’s children’s sales from Jan. 1 through Oct. 6 rose 13.9 percent from the same period last year. Hyundai Department Store’s sales climbed 21 percent from January through September.
Retailers credit the rise in births. Births have risen from a year earlier for 25 consecutive months through July, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. Births in the first seven months rose 14.7 percent, and July’s 24,275 births were the most for any July since 2019, when 25,222 babies were born.
Parents intent on giving one child the best are also spending more. First children accounted for 63.4 percent of all births in July, up 1.7 percentage points from a year earlier, while the shares of second and third children dipped slightly.
Relatives are spending too. “Ten pocket” consumption, in which as many as 10 adults, from parents and grandparents to uncles and aunts, open their wallets for a single child, is spreading.
Department stores are moving their children’s sections upmarket to match. Shinsegae Department Store opened a kids’ sports megastore and a zone for premium baby gear at its Uijeongbu branch in Gyeonggi last month.
Premium children’s products on the brands’ websites include, from left, a Baby Dior baby lotion, Moncler Enfant boys’ jackets and a Bugaboo stroller.SCREEN CAPTURE
Shinsegae’s Gangnam store has become known as a mecca for luxury children’s shopping. Tenants include Moncler Enfant, which sells padded jackets for more than 1 million won ($747), and Baby Dior, which sells a baby lotion for nearly 150,000 won.
At Hyundai Department Store’s Trade Center branch in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, premium baby gear brands Cybex, Bugaboo and Stokke opened standalone stores in the sixth-floor infant and children’s section in August.
Hands-on programs and pop-up stores for young customers are multiplying as well. Lotte Department Store has expanded children’s programs at the Lotte Culture Center in every branch by 10 percent a year.
Shoppers look at baby and children’s goods at Shinsegae Department Store’s Gangnam branch in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Aug. 17. Shinsegae ran its biggest baby fair yet at all its branches through Aug. 30, with about 50 children’s brands offering up to 40 percent off strollers, car seats, baby carriers and children’s clothing.NEWS1
“Premium programs such as English classes and one-on-one instrument lessons are very popular,” a Lotte Department Store spokesperson said. “The number of courses opened rose more than 50 percent last year from the year before.”
Lotte Department Store, which has run its premium kids’ zone Kinder Universe since 2024, opened a Kinder Universe Fair, a hands-on Stokke pop-up store and a pop-up store for Egg strollers this year.
As the competition heats up, more retailers are offering memberships aimed at children. Shinsegae Department Store’s Daegu branch introduced a kids’ membership in February last year, the first such program in Daegu, and passed 5,000 members within three months. More than 1,000 customers a month are still signing up this year.
CJ OnStyle, CJ ENM’s shopping arm, has run On Kids Pass, a 990-won-a-month membership for its infant and children’s category, since Oct. 1.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
