Foreign shoppers now make up over a quarter of Olive Young's offline sales
Between January and May alone, 26.4 percent of Olive Young's in-store sales came from non-Korean customers, up from the single digits in 2023, the company said Thursday in its second-quarter earnings report.
In the same five-month period, 5.96 million foreign visitors made purchases at Olive Young stores, equivalent to about 80 percent of all inbound tourists to South Korea during that time, based on Korea Tourism Organization data.
The health and beauty chain, a subsidiary of CJ Corp., posted 1.46 trillion won ($1.05 billion) in standalone revenue for the second quarter, a 21 percent increase from a year earlier. Net profit rose 15.3 percent to 144 billion won. Offline sales rose 21 percent from the previous quarter, while online sales grew 13 percent, indicating broad-based strength across both platforms.
First-half revenue reached 2.7 trillion won, up 17.9 percent year-on-year. Net profit increased 17.1 percent to 270.3 billion won. Olive Young is now on track to surpass 5 trillion won in annual revenue for the first time in its history, continuing a steady upward trajectory: The company first broke the 1 trillion won mark in 2016, reached 2 trillion won in 2021 and reported 4.79 trillion won in 2024.
Olive Young has been deliberately building large, highly visible flagship stores in key tourist districts such as Myeong-dong, Hongdae and Seongsu in Seoul. These outlets combine extensive product offerings with multilingual services, interactive beauty zones and cultural programming designed to appeal to global customers.
The largest, Olive Young N Seongsu, opened late last year and attracted more than 1 million visitors within four months, ranking among the top three nationwide for foreign sales.
'Our strategy has been to invest in experiences that resonate with global customers and make K-beauty accessible the moment they arrive in Korea,' a company spokesperson said. 'We want to be the first stop for discovering Korean beauty.'
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