Are Massage Chairs the Next Retail Experience?

Kim: “Nowadays, you cannot open a store and just expect sales; now you have to focus on detail and how you present your product to the world.”

NEWPORT BEACH, CA—Bodyfriend, a prominent massage-chair manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, plans to have a presence in every major US city by 2022, offering customers the ability to experience its product to the fullest and enjoy the entire purchasing experience in a showroom-like environment, CEO Taek Kim tells GlobeSt.com. Launched in 2007, the company has become the highest-growing massage company in the world, grossing $360 million in 2016.

Bodyfriend’s goal is to gross $1 billion in sales per calendar year. It has expanded into the global market starting with the US, recently acquired factories in China and Italy and focused on the Asian and North American markets starting this year. In addition, Bodyfriend and Automobili Lamborghini, a luxury supercar manufacturer, have entered a four-year partnership deal to combine the health benefits that massage chairs offer with the spirit and design of one the Lamborghini brand.