Musinsa's flagship shopping event is boosting sales for participating brands from the start as it marks its fifth anniversary. Musinsa said on June 18 that its "Musinsa Mujinjang Summer Black Friday" is seeing strong sales soon after the event began. As of June 16, two days after the start, more than 100 brands had exceeded 100 million won in sales. As of 10 a.m. on June 17, the number had risen to more than 171.

As demand from customers planning early shopping quickly gathers, transaction values for popular brands are also rising. Marking its fifth year since launch, "Musinsa Mujinjang" has continued to grow each year and has established itself as Musinsa's integrated online and offline shopping event. The event helps participating brands clear seasonal inventory and expand sales during summer, which the fashion industry considers an off-season. This year it is selling about 598,000 items from 4,350 brands at discounted prices.

Performance by individual brands is also notable. Domestic shoe brand Kinchi surpassed 100 million won in 30 minutes as soon as the event began. Women's designer brand Dainit recorded nearly 200 million won in transaction value in 1 hour during its first Musinsa Live broadcast marking Mujinjang, at 8 p.m. on June 15. Domestic casual brand Dimitri Black exceeded 1 billion won in transaction value within 3 days of the event's start.

The trend of high prices is also cited as a factor increasing interest in major discount events. According to the National Data Center's "May consumer price trend," the consumer price index in May rose 3.1 percent from the same month a year earlier to 119.92. The living cost index, after rising 2.3 percent and 2.9 percent in March and April, respectively, also continued its uptrend in May with a 3.3 percent increase. As consumers have become more price-sensitive in spending on clothing and accessories, demand to buy verified brand products at reasonable prices is seen as leading to the event's early performance.

A distribution industry official said demand for reasonably priced options is rising in fashion and clothing consumption as high prices persist. Events like Musinsa Mujinjang, which concentrate customer inflows, can give consumers an opportunity to buy popular brands at discounted prices, while providing brands with a channel to reduce inventory burdens and expand touchpoints with new customers, the official said.

Musinsa's strengthened offline strategy is increasing the online-offline linkage effect. During the two-day pre-event teasing period on June 13 and 14, daily active users on the Musinsa online store rose by more than 70 percent on average from the previous week. As more customers visited areas around Seongsu and Seoul Forest in Seoul and Musinsa stores nationwide, the flow of experiencing brands and products offline and then making purchases online is also seen as expanding.

Musinsa will continue its online and offline promotions through the event's end date on June 24. It will run "Signature Brand Day," which discounts a collection of popular brands, and "Signature Special Price," which discounts popular summer items. It will also offer limited-quantity special-price items on a first-come, first-served basis at 11 a.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. each day. It also introduced a fifth-anniversary "Count Up" event for the first time. It will provide first-come coupons each time cumulative sales reach each 10 billion won interval from 10 billion won up to 310 billion won, and issue 50 percent coupons at the 50 billion won, 150 billion won and 250 billion won levels.

A Musinsa official said Mujinjang is the company's flagship event designed to offer customers the enjoyment of shopping and reasonable buying opportunities, while supporting competitive small and mid-sized brands by helping them expand sales and secure customer touchpoints. This summer's Black Friday was prepared to mark the fifth anniversary by expanding the number of participating brands and the scale of benefits, and Musinsa will continue various promotions for the remainder of the event, the official said.