The short version
MUSINSA is an online clothing platform, and the shops carrying that name split into two kinds. MUSINSA Store, which gathers many brands under one roof, often refuses cash outright, while MUSINSA Standard, which sells the house label, carries a tax refund notice. Which one you head for is decided by how you plan to pay rather than what you want to buy.
Last verified:
Right now
- 1Check whether the place you are heading to is a MUSINSA Store or a MUSINSA Standard. What they sell and how they take payment both differ.
- 2Do not set out with cash alone. It is not that they refuse cards, it is that some branches refuse cash.
- 3Open that branch on the store list and read the few lines under payment before you leave. Whether tax refunds are handled is written there.
What to have ready
- Passport: Needed before the till starts ringing things up, at branches that handle refunds.
- A card or a phone payment app: Every branch checked takes Visa and Mastercard. Cash is taken at roughly half of them.
- Somewhere to keep the receipt: Clothes bought in a shop can only be swapped with the receipt in hand.
Phrases you can copy and paste
Step by step
- 1
One name, two kinds of shop
MUSINSA began as an online platform selling clothes, and there are now 87 shops carrying that name across the country (as of August 2026). The confusing part is that two rather different chains share one name. MUSINSA Store and MUSINSA Megastore are multi-brand shops that gather labels under one roof, while MUSINSA Standard sells the house label that MUSINSA makes itself. For basics like a T-shirt or denim at a low price, Standard fits. To browse Korean brands broadly, the multi-brand side does. Of the 87 shops on the official list, 51 are Standard, 13 are the multi-brand chain, and the remaining 23 belong to sister labels such as 29CM. The signage differs too. Multi-brand shops use capital MUSINSA, Standard uses lowercase musinsa standard. One caveat: the Seongsu megastore has both inside one building, so the sign alone can send you to the wrong floor.
- 2
The tax refund notice sits on the Standard side
The scheme that lets foreign travellers claim back the tax built into a price works the same everywhere in Korea, but at MUSINSA the counter for it exists at some branches and not others. Open a branch page on the official site and the payment notice either carries the line 'Tax refund available' or it does not. On 27 August 2026, all eight MUSINSA Standard branches checked (Hongdae, Gangnam, Myeongdong, Seongsu, Hannam, Yeouido, Cheongnyangni and Seongsu-iro) carried that line. The multi-brand branches did not: MUSINSA Store Seongsu, Hongdae, Myeongdong and Gangnam, plus the megastores in Seongsu and Yongsan. So if the refund matters, pick a Standard branch, and opening that branch page before you leave settles it. The passport has to come out before the till starts.
- 3
Some branches take no cash at all
The multi-brand side is mostly cashless. MUSINSA Store Seongsu, Hongdae, Myeongdong and Gangnam, along with the Seongsu megastore, are listed as cashless on their branch pages, and MUSINSA Kicks Hongdae and Seongsu have no cash entry in their payment list at all. Pulling out banknotes at the till leaves the staff with no way to take them. MUSINSA Standard Hongdae, Gangnam, Myeongdong and Seongsu, on the other hand, say plainly that cash is accepted. Even within Standard, the Seongsu-iro branch is cashless, so the name alone does not settle it. Cards are easier. Every branch checked takes Visa and Mastercard, and Samsung Pay, KakaoPay, Apple Pay and Alipay work at most of them. MUSINSA Kicks Hongdae is the exception, taking only Visa, Mastercard and KakaoPay. WeChat Pay is taken at Standard branches and at the Seongsu megastore.
- 4
Shops cluster differently by neighbourhood
Seongsu is where MUSINSA branches sit closest together in Seoul. Among alleys where old factories and repair shops still operate, a megastore, a store, a Standard, a Kicks and an Empty are scattered within walking distance, enough to fill a day here alone. In Hongdae the store (Yanghwa-ro 164) and the Standard (Yanghwa-ro 144) stand on the same street at different numbers. Both stay open until 11 at night, which suits an evening visit. Myeongdong has both a store and a Standard on the tourist route, the store closing at 11 and MUSINSA Standard Myeongdong at 10. In Gangnam both stay open until 11. Most open at 11 in the morning and close at 10 or 11 at night, and the official notice says hours may run longer or shorter on weekends and public holidays.
- 5
Set the browser to English and the address comes out in roman letters
The MUSINSA offline store pages follow the browser language setting. Open them in a browser set to English and branch names appear as Musinsa Standard Myeongdong, with the address rewritten as 1F-3F, 90, Namdaemun-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul. That means the screen can be shown to a taxi driver as it is. The translation does not go all the way, so the floor guide stays in Korean as something like '3F : 여성 / 피팅룸'. The online shop itself runs in Korean, so browser translation is faster once you are picking items.
- 6
What you buy in a shop can only be swapped there
The official notice is explicit on this point. Items bought offline cannot be exchanged or refunded online. You have to return to the branch where you bought them, policies may differ by branch, and the receipt has to come with you. On a trip this bites harder than it sounds. Trousers bought in Seongsu cannot be swapped at the Myeongdong branch the next day, and once you have moved on to another city the option is gone. So when a size is borderline, trying it on there and then is the safer move. Standard branches spread across several floors and put fitting rooms on more than one of them: the second and third floors in Myeongdong, the first and second basement levels in Gangnam.
- 7
Once home, the overseas site takes over
If you want the same clothes after leaving Korea, MUSINSA runs a separate site for overseas orders. Its location picker lists nine places in Asia (Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam), two in North America (Canada and the United States) and two in Oceania (Australia and New Zealand). As of August 2026 Europe is not on the list. If you came from Europe, buying while you are still in Korea is the practical route. Prices show in the local currency and can differ from in-store promotions, with shipping and customs on top.
The Korean words
- 피팅룸piting-rum· fitting room
- What changing rooms are called here. Store signage uses this spelling.
- 입어봐도 돼요?ibeobwado dwaeyo?· may I try this on
- Hold up the item and ask, and staff will point you to the fitting room.
- 사이즈saijeu· size
- Korean shops use S, M and L too. Some brands add numeric sizing alongside.
- 교환gyohwan· exchange
- Swapping for another size or another item.
- 환불hwanbul· refund
- Getting the money back. The conditions can differ from an exchange.
- 영수증yeongsujeung· receipt
- Needed for exchanges and refunds. Taking the paper copy is safer.
- 현금hyeon-geum· cash
- Worth asking about first, since some branches do not take it.
Easy to miss
- Walking into a MUSINSA Store expecting a MUSINSA Standard leaves you without what you came for. The first is a multi-brand shop, the second sells the house label.
- The multi-brand branches often refuse cash. If you changed money into notes, bring another way to pay.
- Producing a passport at a branch with no refund notice gets you nowhere. At MUSINSA this varies branch by branch.
- Clothes bought in a shop cannot be exchanged or refunded online. You have to go back to that branch, receipt in hand.
- Opening hours differ by branch. Places closing at 10 and at 11 sit in the same neighbourhood.
- Europe is missing from the overseas delivery list. A plan to order after flying home stops here.
You can skip this if
- If you are after imported luxury or something for a formal occasion, this is not where MUSINSA is strong. Department stores or the brand's own shop carry deeper stock.
- If you want it delivered before you arrive in Korea, the overseas site is the route rather than the shops. The delivery list is fixed at thirteen places.
When it is time for a person
- If you are staying a while rather than passing through, someone walking you once through where seasonal clothes cost what changes your first winter noticeably.
Where this comes from
Rules, fees and deadlines change and depend on your exact case. Please confirm the details with the official sources before you act.