I felt the greatest sense of
accomplishment as a MD

Q.Please introduce yourself and your current job

Hello. I am Bomin Lee working at JAJU Fashion Team.
Currently, I am in charge of women's wear at JAJU Fashion. And recently I am planning women's fashion, sleepwear, and underwear products targeting E-Mart retails after the reorganization to develop more optimized products by distribution channel.

Q.How did you start your job?

I liked to buy clothes like other people who work for the fashion company, so naturally opened a G-market Store with friends when I was in university. That was how I started to have interests in this job.
When I joined a previous company, I applied for the global sourcing team because I wanted to learn how clothes are actually made and also because I was good at English. In the global sourcing team, I started working for discovering new overseas partners, sourcing raw and subsidiary materials, and production management. Later, I changed my job to MD with a recommendation by the department head, where I was in charge of buying MD to buy global products and planning MD to satisfy the needs of domestic customers.

Q.When did you feel the greatest sense of accomplishment in your job?

I felt the greatest sense of accomplishment as a MD when the product I planned worked very well for the customer needs, thus increasing sales significantly. The most fulfilling moment at JAJU was when we made a great sales growth by applying organic cotton, which was an iconic product of JAJU, to women’s fashion products, especially denim with high potential.
I thought the organic cotton story, which was used only in sleepwear or underwear, fit our brand well and it was well-recognized by customers. So, we decided to apply it not only to t-shirts but also denim pants based on the outfit proposal in March. We could present a signature outfit based on the consistent story of ‘Organic cotton,’ achieving the sales growth by 47% year on year and 92% of sales rate.
In addition, the purchase was more focused on slacks rather than denim pants, but the fit and color were expanded by changing the focus to denim pants to meet the needs of ‘casual and comfortable outfit.’ As of 2023, it has achieved five times the growth compared to 2020. I felt a great achievement while planning denim pants in that planning was successful to meet customer needs in many ways.

Q.What kind of efforts do you make to grow your expertise?

Basically, trend analysis is the most important, but I think it is also important to judge whether the trend fits our customers' needs and how much it can lead to sales depending on the brand.
Everything starts with changes in the customer’s lifestyle, so I am trying to analyze big data to analyze the amount of search and buzz to figure out lifestyle changes and new interests.
Of course, my taste can match with customers,’ but I try to think more about brand customers’ needs in their point of views.

Q.Please describe what you would like to look like in the near future.

As you become a senior level, it is getting more important to give a good guidance to junior colleagues. I would like to be a senior who is not only good at my own work but also able to look at the larger picture and give a good guidance at the right time.

Q.What do you think is the strong point of Shinsegae International?

I think there are many experienced people working in the Shinsegae International. So, there should be a synergy created by working-level people with various experiences in many different companies and careers. I think we can create higher synergy if we share and accept experiences from each other and develop them.

Q.Is there anyone in Shinsegae International whom you admires professionally or personally?

My team leader.
We sometimes burn out when we cannot find a way out and feel frustrated, but I found my team leader being able to find and apply a solution after a long consideration even in the face of problems or challenges. I learned a lot from her attitude that she looks for the solution together, suggests, and makes it possible.

Q.Do you have any special hobby to keep work-life balance?

We have 9 to 5 working culture, but same as other Shinsegae International people, I work frantically before getting off, so I wanted to just lie down from exhaustion after work, and oversleep and have a rest on weekends. Especially during pandemic period, I felt even more listless because a lot of things were restricted. So, I go on a camping these days on weekends and spend healing time in the nature twice a month to keep my own on & off!