CJ Olive Young Corp., South Korea’s top beauty store chain, said on Tuesday it has set up a US business entity in Los Angeles, California, to enhance its presence in the world’s largest beauty products market.
The franchise operator, a unit of food-to-entertainment conglomerate CJ Group, said it also plans to soon open its first offline outlet in the US.
The company said it is reviewing multiple locations for its first brick-and-mortar US store. It didn’t provide the timeframe for the offline outlet launch.
By combining local data accumulated through its global e-commerce platform with its successful omnichannel strategy in Korea, the company aims to create an outlet that integrates various K-beauty brands and trends, it said.
“Our local subsidiary in Los Angeles, CJ Olive Young USA, marks our full-fledged entry into the world’s largest beauty market,” it said in a statement.
DISTRIBUTION NETWORK IN US
Going forward, CJ Olive Young plans to collaborate with its affiliate CJ Logistics Corp. to establish a local distribution network for direct product shipping within the US.
Globally, CJ Olive Young mostly handles overseas orders through its online mall Global Mall, through which it ships 20,000 types of products to more than 150 countries, with a focus on its private labels such as BioHeal BOH and WakeMake.
It set up a Chinese subsidiary in 2012 and opened 10 offline outlets in the country before pulling out of China years later due to growing losses.
JAPAN, US: TWO STRATEGIC MARKETS
In May 2024, CJ Olive Young established a Japanese subsidiary to distribute its private-label products locally.
Japan and the US are the company’s two most important overseas markets for its global expansion amid growing interest in K-beauty products.
According to global market research firm Euromonitor International, the size of the global beauty product market stood at $570 billion in 2023, of which the US was the largest single market at $120 billion.
Data from Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety showed that K-beauty exports to the US grew by an annual average of over 20% from 2020 to 2023.
“Establishing CJ Olive Young USA is a stepping stone for us to find new growth drivers in the global market alongside our core small and medium-sized brand partners,” said CJ Olive Chief Executive Lee Sun-jung. “We will do our best to serve as a ‘K-beauty growth booster’ in overseas markets.”
By In-Soo Nam
isnam@hankyung.com
Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.
