Lotte Duty Free stops sales to Chinese social buyers as part of measures to improve profits - South Korea

Lotte Duty Free announced that it will no longer sell to Chinese social buyers, who purchase large quantities of goods overseas on behalf of Chinese buyers and sell them in their own countries or other countries, from January 2024.
This shows the company's willingness to improve profitability even if it means giving up sales from bulk purchases by sales buyers.
To deal with this, Korean duty-free shops sold products to Chinese social buyers on the condition that they refund 40 to 50 percent of the regular price as a commission.
The four major duty free companies, Lotte, Shilla, Shinsegae and Hyundai, are expected to post a cumulative operating loss of 135.5 billion won in the July-September period of 2024.
The reason why Lotte Duty Free decided to suspend business with Chinese social buyers is that the bottoming out of profitability has become an urgent issue for the company.
As of 2024, Chinese social buyers will account for around 50% of the company's annual sales.
An industry insider said, "The duty-free industry needs government support to survive, but at the same time, individual companies need to
"We also need to make strenuous improvements to our business," he said.