SEOUL -- Andar, a popular South Korean athleisure brand, will open a mega-sized, two-story pop-up store in an Osaka, Japan department store. The brand aims to attract more Japanese customers through offline experiences after gaining popularity on Japanese ecommerce platforms.
Athleisure clothing gained popularity in South Korea over the last decade as people sought comfortable, versatile clothes for indoor training like Pilates and CrossFit. This trend, particularly favored by young women, emphasizes both comfort and a healthy physique.
Andar, established in 2015, made a foray into Japan's ecommerce market in 2021 through collaboration with Rakuten, a major Japanese ecommerce platform. After a successful online promotion, the South Korean athleisure company opened a Japanese online shopping mall in 2022. According to Statista, a global market analyst firm, Japan's athleisure market will stand at about 900 billion yen ($5.9 billion) in 2030.
The athleisure company said that it will open a pop-up store over two stories of Hankyu Umeda Main Store, an iconic department store in Osaka, starting February 27. A pop-up store is a temporary shop operated to maximize the effectiveness of product promotion. Such event stores incorporate on-site events that induce participation from consumers and surprise events that offer hefty discounts.
Andar reports its Japanese ecommerce sales surged over 400% in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the same period the previous year. Following the success of the company's Japanese online shopping mall, Andar plans to open additional offline stores to maintain momentum.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
