Rice cake dessert sales at Lotte Department Store's Jamsil branch grew sixfold in September from a year earlier, driven by a string of successful pop-up stores gathering famous rice cake shops from across the country and by the popularity of novelty items such as the glutinous rice cakes from dessert brand Hanjeongseon. Sales of rice cake products have also surged at e-commerce platforms and convenience stores, making the boom's impact visible across the retail industry.
Rice cake dessert sales at the Jamsil branch rose 500% in September from the same month a year earlier, Lotte Department Store said on the 24th. Sales at its main branch increased 460%. The company attributed the gains largely to the Hanjeongseon effect, combined with the broader rice cake trend.
Shoppers also flocked to rice cake pop-ups. The first "National Rice Cake Pilgrimage" event, held for seven days from Aug. 14 to 20, drew 20,000 paying customers, and a second run on the first basement floor of the Jamsil branch from Oct. 9 to 15 attracted 15,000. The second edition featured eight rice cake brands from around the country, including Yukgu Bangatgan in Sokcho, Yeongdodari Tteokbang in Busan, Daeheung Tteokjip in Seoul, Changwon Saenggwabang in Changwon and Morakjeolmi in Daegu — three more brands than the earlier event. Yukgu Bangatgan's rice-grain glutinous rice cake, Yeongdodari Tteokbang's pizza seolgi and Daeheung Tteokjip's matcha chocolate seolgi were among the standout items.
Demand has carried over online. Transaction value in Kurly's rice cake and traditional confectionery category roughly doubled over the three months from June to August from a year earlier. Transaction value for Changeok's pumpkin injeolmi rose 336%, topping the rice cake rankings, while pizza seolgi broke into the upper tier within two weeks of listing. Transaction value for traditional confectionery such as yakgwa and yakbap climbed 123%. Kurly expanded the number of related products by 80% to meet demand.
Retailers agree that the popularity of rice cakes has surged in the second half of this year. Lines form at popular outlets such as Hanjeongseon from opening time in what shoppers call a "tteok-pen run," a play on the Korean words for rice cake and open run, while a "rice cake pilgrimage" trend has emerged in which consumers travel to seek out well-known rice cake shops.
At the basement food hall of Lotte World Mall in Jamsil, lines in front of the Godiva and Hanjeongseon outlets recently snaked back on themselves several times over. Godiva's "Godiva mochi," limited to 150 pieces a day, has a pickup time starting at 10:30 a.m., yet queues form before dawn and the day's waiting list has at times closed around 6 a.m. Searches for "Godiva mochi" on NAVER totaled 83,300 over the past month, according to big data analytics platform BlackKiwi. Posts offering to buy the item on others' behalf for a premium have appeared on secondhand trading platforms.
Estimated spending on barcoded packaged rice cakes came to about 151.9 billion won over the past year, from September 2025 through August 2026, up 31.2% from 115.8 billion won a year earlier, according to Embrain's purchase data. Rice cake purchases, which had fallen 1.8% in the preceding period, rebounded within a year. The number of receipts rose 23.0% over the same period. With spending rising faster than the number of purchases, the amount spent per transaction also increased.
By age group, spending by those in their 20s and younger rose 45.5%, the steepest increase, followed by a 40.0% rise among those in their 50s. By item, glutinous rice cakes rose 88.7%, moving to second place from third, while mochi-type products surged 161.5%. The shift indicates rice cakes are being consumed as desserts rather than as holiday food or meal substitutes.
Convenience stores have moved quickly as well. The "Hanjeongseon yogurt glutinous rice cake," launched early last month by GS25 in partnership with Hanjeongseon and Roromello, has sold more than 700,000 units cumulatively. In September alone it overtook canned beer to become the top-selling item across GS25's quick commerce channel, covering delivery and pickup — an unusual showing for a dessert in a segment dominated by alcohol and ready-to-eat meals. GS25 has since released a follow-up, the "Hanjeongseon pistachio glutinous rice cake," and held a limited presale of 20,000 units.
Emart24 sold 11 popular items from Yeongdodari Tteokbang and Iksan Nonghyup Tteok Bangatgan at its Trend Lab Seongsu and Dessert Lab Seoul Forest outlets from Sept. 17 to 20, a first for the convenience store industry. The company is also preparing products developed with those shops for sale at stores nationwide. "Attention is concentrated on certain brands, but spending on packaged rice cakes is rising as well," an industry official said. "This could be a turning point that expands the share rice cakes hold in the dessert market."