Korean retailers are finding new ways to capitalize on the booming K-beauty market, expanding beauty offerings into fashion platforms, pharmacies and discount stores.
Fashion retailer Musinsa launched its first physical beauty store in Hongdae on Friday, adding a new retail channel for consumers. All four stories of Musinsa Beauty Hongdae are dedicated entirely to beauty. Its basement also houses Beauty Onnuri Pharmacy, a new K-beauty-focused concept operated by Korea’s Onnuri Pharmacy franchise.
The concept reflects growing consumer interest in skincare products formulated to address specific concerns and featuring sought-after ingredients. Products containing ingredients such as polydeoxyribonucleotide, or PDRN, and tranexamic acid have gained traction among beauty consumers.
At the pharmacy, pharmacists offer one-on-one consultations, including multilingual services for international visitors. The pharmacy handles medicines and other products that require professional guidance and are subject to relevant regulations.
The store’s upper floors carry skincare, makeup and health-related products from around 600 brands, giving shoppers access to a broad range of beauty products under one roof.
"Customers can shop more efficiently in one building, with relatively high-performance skincare products concentrated at the pharmacy on the basement floor," said Lee Min-ji of Musinsa Beauty.
Musinsa said it chose Hongdae because of its large concentration of international visitors and young beauty consumers, particularly women in their 20s and 30s, who seek opportunities to experience products offline by seeing and testing them in person.
The company said its beauty business has seen steady growth since it opened a beauty zone on the second floor of Musinsa's Mega Store in Seongsu, Seoul. Sales at its beauty zone alone rose 20 percent in August from April.
Musinsa also said the sales of around 500 beauty brands on its online platform increased 35 percent in three weeks following the opening of Seongsu's beauty zone, suggesting that offline exposure has also driven online sales.
Daiso, meanwhile, is targeting a different part of the beauty market: affordability.
The discount retailer opened a new 66.12-square-meter store near Konkuk University last month with beauty products accounting for about 80 percent of its merchandise.
As with Daiso’s other stores, all products are priced below 5,000 won ($3.70).
Before deciding to open the new store, the company found that the area attracts a diverse mix of customers, including university students, office workers, young consumers and foreign tourists, whose demand spans a wide range of products, from skincare and cosmetics to dietary supplements, hair care, perfumes and accessories.
That demand is reflected in Daiso’s overall sales nationwide. The company said beauty-category sales increased about 30 percent in the January-August period from a year earlier.
Daiso’s cosmetics and skincare products have also repeatedly sold out after going viral online.
Products such as Mommy Care’s Sea Grape Skin Pack and VT Cosmetics’ Reedle Shots have attracted attention not only for their affordable prices but also for their perceived quality.
mjcha@heraldcorp.com
