South Korea’s offline and online retailers prep their biggest blowout bargains, timed with the Korea Sale Festa (KSF) season running from Nov. 1 to Nov. 27 Black Friday, shaving price tags up to 80 percent and throwing in gift coupons and vouchers.

Lotte Group’s retail units – Lotte Department Store, Lotte Mart, Lotte Super, Lobs, Lotte Himart, Lotte Home Shopping and Lotte ON – will hold a bargain event marking the 41st anniversary of Lotte Shopping from Friday to Nov. 8 to offer up to 80 percent discounts on 500,000 products. Lotte Department Store will grant a 30 percent discount on luxury goods imported by Lotte Tops and give exclusive bargains for LG Electronics’ seven top-selling appliances. The promotional event is conducted online as well.

Shinsegae Group will also host its biggest annual shopping event ‘Korea SSG Day’ next month with the joining of all of its 18 online and offline retail affiliates including Shinsegae Department Store, Emart, SSG.com, Shinsegae Property and Emart 24. The group held the event for the first time last year when SSG.com offered 10 billion won ($8.8 million) shopping coupons and up to 80 percent discounts and Emart gave half-price sales and buy-one-get-one-free promotion for 100 billion won worth products. The group said this year’s event will be much bigger in scale and discount rates.

Hyundai Department Store has been holding a sales event for fall and winter season apparel from last Thursday to this Sunday. Consumers who spend more than 600,000 won via Hyundai Department Store credit card during the period will receive a return of up to 10 percent as gift certificates.

The nation’s online shopping platforms are also gearing up for the peak shopping season. Coupang is providing up to 53 percent discounts for 800 or more products by Nov. 1 in advance of Black Friday. eBay Korea plans ‘Big Smile Day’ from Nov.1 to 12 on Gmarket, Auction and G9 to offer daily bargaining items discounted by 70 percent to 75 percent.

KSF is the country’s biggest shopping extravaganza introduced first in 2015 by the government to spur domestic consumption. This year’s event will run from Nov. 1 to 15 with joining of more than 1,000 companies, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

By Kim Tae-sung and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]