Lotte Duty Free has signed a cooperation agreement with the Small Business Distribution Center (SBDC) to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in expanding their sales channels.
SBDC, which is under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, has been supporting SMEs to help them find markets and distribution channels.
Under the agreement, Lotte Duty Free will participate in an offline sales support project to offer assistance to these businesses.
The process starts with selecting SMEs through the SBDC-run sales platform Fanfandaero. Interested businesses have until 16 July to register via the website.
The partners will then choose 50 businesses through screening and document evaluation, and promote their entry into Lotte Duty Free’s online and offline channels.
Small business owners can sign up via the Fanfandaero website for the opportunity to participate in the programme
Eligible participants include businesses offering products that can be sold in domestic duty-free such as cosmetics, fashion, clothing, miscellaneous goods and souvenirs.
The programme also allows qualified SMEs to use Lotte Duty Free’s infrastructure, including retail networks and channels, to actively promote their brands and boost sales.
To increase brand awareness and support the business growth of participating SMEs, the travel retailer will conduct various marketing activities offline and online. These include pop-up events, digital signage advertising, participation in Lotte Duty Free online store exhibitions, online ads and social media marketing events.
A Lotte Duty Free official said: “This project is a significant opportunity to establish a place for coexistence with small and medium-sized businesses and to inform customers around the world of the excellence of domestic brands. Lotte Duty Free will continue to discover small and medium-sized brands and develop sales channels for them.”
To strengthen its cooperation and coexistence with SMEs and local communities, the travel retailer has been actively involved in projects that support the growth of these small businesses.
As reported, Lotte Duty Free last year signed a business agreement with the Commission on Shared Growth for Large and Small Companies for the 2023 Supplier ESG Support Project that seeks to support SME partner companies.
Through this programme, the retailer contributed a total of KRW50 million (US$37,000) to the win-win cooperation fund to support its partner companies with ESG education and consultation to help practice ESG management.
Seven out of ten participating companies were selected by the Mutual Growth Committee in May and received benefits such as preferential interest rates and preferential treatment for overseas expansion support projects.
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