What: Children's sales rose 21% at Hyundai Department Store and 13.9% at Shinsegae this year, as Korea's birth rebound pushes department stores to upgrade their children's floors.

Why it is important: Premium brands, hands-on programmes and children's memberships show department stores using the youngest customers to recruit and retain whole families, with spending pooled across parents and grandparents.

Births in Korea have risen year on year for 25 consecutive months through July, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics, with births in the first seven months up 14.7% and July's 24,275 births the highest for that month since 2019. First children accounted for 63.4% of July births, reinforcing parents' focus on giving one child the best, while "ten pocket" spending pools contributions from up to ten relatives.

Department stores are responding by moving children's floors upmarket. Shinsegae opened a kids' sports megastore and a premium baby gear zone at its Uijeongbu branch in September, and its Gangnam store hosts Moncler Enfant, with padded jackets above 1 million won ($747), and Baby Dior. Hyundai Department Store's Trade Center branch added standalone Cybex, Bugaboo and Stokke stores in August.

Programmes and memberships are expanding too. Lotte has grown children's programmes at its Lotte Culture Center by 10% a year, with course openings up more than 50% last year, alongside its Kinder Universe zone and pop-ups. Shinsegae's Daegu kids' membership passed 5,000 members within three months of its February 2025 launch, and CJ OnStyle launched On Kids Pass, a 990-won monthly children's subscription, on October 1.

IADS Notes: The push into children's categories extends a run of strong performance for Korean department stores, which posted record first-quarter results in 2026 on the back of tourist spending, experiential formats and store renewals (Maeil Business Newspaper, May 2026). It also builds on the shift at Hyundai, Shinsegae and Lotte away from floor-by-category layouts toward lifestyle-driven spaces designed to encourage cross-category purchasing (The Chosun Daily, February 2026). The same logic of using family assortments and experiences to widen the customer base is visible in other markets. Nordstrom has rolled out FAO Schwarz shop-in-shops with premium toys and interactive activations aimed at multi-generational shoppers (Press Release, June 2026), while The Mall Group uses children's learning activities and events to position its stores as family destinations (Bangkok Post, June 2026). Premiumisation is not the only direction in the category: parents elsewhere are turning to preloved children's clothing for sustainability and value, which puts pressure on traditional childrenswear retail (Financial Times, May 2026).

Baby rebound sends Korean department stores chasing family wallets