A pop-up store operated by Porsche in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, between November 2022 and March 2023 (Photo by Porsche Korea)

In the capital’s eastern Seongdong-gu District, Seongsu-dong – dubbed the “Brooklyn of Seoul” – is emerging as a trendy “must-visit” for young people.

Similar to New York’s once-industrial neighborhood that is now defined by creativity, this part of Seoul used to be an industrial district that produced and stored automobile parts and handmade shoes in the 1970s.

After the factories and warehouses went out of business during the Asian Financial Crisis in the late '90s, young artists looking for low-rent premises occupied the neighborhood and transformed it into a creative haven in the 2010s.

Today, Seongsu-dong is a hotbed that boasts an authentic mix of trendy youth culture and decades-old ateliers housing handmade shoemakers in low-rise, red-bricked buildings, drawing some of the most trend- and media-sensitive young Koreans and foreign independent travelers.

The key phrase at the heart of the region’s growing popularity is “pop-up stores.”

In nearly every other building, new temporary retail spaces emerge, featuring innovative visual and experimental strategies to catch customers' eyes.

From luxury brands such as Burberry, Chanel and Porsche to local kimchi and soju manufacturers and a big K-pop name like Seventeen, a wide range of brands and companies are rushing to launch innovative events in spacious warehouses to create a buzz about what they are selling.

Visitors line up to enter "Ghana Chocolate House," a pop-up store by Lotte Confectionery in Seoul's Seongsu-dong in May 2022. (Photo by Lotte Confectionery)

According to local real estate agents, Seongsu-dong currently sees over a hundred pop-up stores that last for days to weeks every month, and the region’s rental calendars are already fully booked into early next year.

As of December, over 523,000 Instagram posts are tagged “pop-up store” in Korean, and social media accounts that specialize in pop-up event and exhibition alerts have gained tens of thousands of followers.

The driving force behind the phenomenon is the young, trend-sensitive and social media-savvy generation, culture critics say.

Born between the '90s and 2000s, these young people are always on the hunt for the best new experience and information that can differentiate themselves from others.

These “instagrammable” pop-up stores are aesthetically pleasing as well as ephemeral and experimental by nature, thereby attracting visitors looking for an exclusive and unique in-person experience, while adding ever-changing dynamics to the neighborhood.

A pop-up store operated by Coca-Cola in Seongsu-dong, Seoul in March 2022 (Photo by Coca-Cola)

From the companies’ perspective, a pop-up store is a cost-efficient marketing tactic to showcase a new retail concept or product and engage with their customer base.

Several retailers were forced to close many of their physical stores during the COVID-19 pandemic, but impactful testing grounds can be found without a huge outlay through these temporary offline spaces.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Seongsu-dong emerged as a popular travel destination to the extent of nearly replacing the Myeong-dong shopping district as the capital’s go-to attraction for inbound tourists.

Korea Tourism Organization data show that Seongdong-gu has been receiving growing traffic since 2018. The number of domestic and foreign visitors to the region is expected to see a dramatic rise, as the figure in the first half of 2023 posted 30 million over 51 million for the entire year of 2018.

According to global real estate consulting firm Cushman and Wakefield Korea, the commercial district in Seongsu-dong saw an 80 percent jump in sales from 16.3 billion won in December 2019 to 29.2 billion won in June this year. The growth is in contrast to trends seen in the Gangnam, Myeong-dong and Hongdae areas, which saw 12 percent, 17 percent and 8 percent decreases in sales, respectively.