South Korea

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Demand for jewellery has suffered as a result of COVID-19 due to weddings and other social events being postponed or cancelled. However, as a result of consumers’ continued desire to own small luxury items, although the category saw reduced growth in...

The impact of COVID-19 was not as severe in South Korea as in other countries. Duty-free was of course hit due to the collapse of travel and tourism, but the country has recovered quickly, relaxing high-level social distancing from 6 May. Since this ...

There were differing trends arising from COVID-19 in the watches category in 2020. Basic and mid watches were not as affected during Q1, but high mechanical watches, demand for which has a high reliance on inbound tourist arrivals, were more ...

Demand for luxury bags and luggage continued in 2020, with COVID-19 failing to reduce consumers’ desire to own designer bags. Luxury handbags are planned purchases not impulse buys, so many consumers visited department stores to make purchases. Many ...

Children in South Korea were supposed to return to school in March following the COVID-19 outbreak, but this was delayed to May. Students are attending more online classes and doing their homework online, which has impacted demand for writing ...

No online purchases are allowed for vision correcting eyewear products in South Korea. This particularly affected the category during the first quarter of the year due to COVID-19, with people working from home and self-quarantined. As a result, ...

Unlike other markets, COVID-19 had a particular impact on the performance of the eyewear market in South Korea as no online purchases are allowed for vision correcting eyewear products in the country. The impact of this was particularly evident in ...

Despite being considered across most markets as an “essential service”, most optical shops have been operating at a very limited capacity during the COVID-19 outbreak, addressing only essential eyecare needs. This has weakened the performance of the ...

The sunglasses category in South Korea was adversely affected during Q1 2020 as a result of COVID-19, but demonstrated recovery in Q2. The sunglasses category is expected to see further growth in Q3 due to summer sale and consumers going on holiday. ...

 In 2019, video games saw persistent sales growth through mobile and static console games, which is expected to continue over the forecast period. Mobile games remained the largest area of video games, due to the rapid introduction of new mobile ...

The ongoing decline in the birth rate was a significant challenge facing the traditional toys and games industry in 2019. The number of new-borns was 438,420 in 2015, with a 1.24 fertility rate, while in 2019, there were 303,100 new-borns, and the ...

The outbreak of COVID-19 in South Korea is predicted to positively boost growth and sales in the video games industry, while growth for traditional toys and games for 2020, is expected to align to the pre-COVID-19 predictions. ...

The toys and games industry sees positive growth, although with setbacks due to Coronavirus. In traditional toys, long-term opportunities lie in licensing and categories combining play, education and skill-building experience. Broader exposure to ...

Given that South Korea did not introduce any blanket non-essential retail closures or stay-at-home mandates for the local population, the impact of COVID-19 on the tobacco market has probably been less marked in this country than in many other ...

Cigars and cigarillos in South Korea were on a generally downward trend over the review period, with the players in this category still needing to improve consumer awareness of the products and widen the consumer base. Cigars are perceived as being ...

Cigarette consumption in South Korea continued on a downward trend in 2019. As consumers' concerns about leading a healthy lifestyle increase and the government’s anti-smoking campaigns continue to have an effect, both smoking population and smoking ...

JUUL Labs Inc launched the JUUL brand in South Korea in May 2019. The launch attracted a lot of attention from both consumers and manufacturers as the country saw rapid growth in the vaping population. JUUL’s reduced-smell and low-priced device ...

The economy will contract slightly this year. The declining economic performance reflects the economic and social upheaval caused by COVID-19, as well as sluggish growth in exports, particularly in the electronics industry, which has been adversely ...

Dermocosmetics continued to grow in South Korea in 2019. With the category competitive, clean and conscious beauty was added to dermo cosmetics, through offerings such as Dewytree, Be Plain and Steady:D. Consumers were also demonstrating a continued ...