CJ Olive Young’s store in Myeong-dong, Seoul, Jan. 9 / Yonhap
By Ko Dong-hwan
CJ Olive Young CEO Lee Sun-jung / Courtesy of Olive Young
Beauty retail giant CJ Olive Young launched its subsidiary in the United States, cementing its market presence in the world’s largest beauty market, the retail chain operator said Tuesday.
With the newly established CJ Olive Young USA in California, the company plans to open its first offline store in the United States. The location currently remains undecided.
Olive Young launched the subsidiary to better target the U.S. beauty market. The Seoul-based firm cited global market analyst Euromonitor International, which in 2023 valued the U.S. beauty market at about $120 billion, the largest country in the industry’s global market valued at $570 billion. The U.S. market’s estimated value is more than 10 times Korea’s overall beauty product exports of $10.2 billion last year.
The growing demand for Korean beauty products among Americans is another reason behind the launch of the new company. According to Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, exports of Korean cosmetic products to the U.S. jumped by more than 20 percent each year from 2020 to 2023.
“Considering about 40 percent of the U.S. population are those in their [teens to 30s and] are sensitive to beauty trends, our sales in the U.S., once we secure better local market accessibility, will increase fast,” an Olive Young official said.
To make its new subsidiary a hub for market expansion across the U.S. and worldwide, Olive Young began localizing key functions such as product sourcing, marketing and logistics operations.
The subsidiary will also support the operations of Olive Young’s online platform, Olive Young Global Mall, which currently caters to customers in 150 countries, including the U.S. through direct purchase.
“Most of the online mall’s sales come from the U.S. and Canada, where e-commerce has become a common shopping method,” the official said.
Olive Young USA will handle product delivery across the U.S. through CJ Logistics America, which is the U.S. subsidiary of Korean logistics giant CJ Logistics.
Olive Young CEO Lee Sun-jung said its U.S. subsidiary will “provide a new growth engine to Korean small and medium-sized enterprises, which are our key partners, seeking to expand their global markets.”
Olive Young currently runs over 1,360 offline shops in Korea.
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