More foreign shoppers return for Olive Young sales, retailer says

The number of foreign customers making repeat trips to Korea to shop during CJ Olive Young's periodic sales has risen sharply over the past three years, the health and beauty retailer said Monday.

CJ Olive Young said an analysis of foreign-customer data conducted with Global Tax Free, Korea's largest tax-refund operator, found that the number of foreign visitors who shopped during both the March and June sale periods this year was 11 times higher than three years ago.

Foreign visitors returning to Korea two or more times a year to coincide with the sales have increased at an average annual rate of about twofold since 2023, the company said. More than 6,200 foreign tourists visited Korea three or more times during last year's sale periods. Given that tax-refund procedures require travelers to leave the country within a set period, the company said those visitors appeared to have returned home before traveling to Korea again.

Held four times a year, in March, June, September and December, the sale involves more than 1,500 beauty brands. CJ Olive Young attributed repeat visits to the scale of the event, in-store product curation and shopping convenience and trust in the products after customers used them at home.

The company said sales have also contributed to spending outside the greater Seoul area. During the June sale, foreign sales at stores outside the capital region rose 72 percent from a year earlier, above the nationwide average increase of 45 percent. Over the same period, visits to the Olive Young Global Mall, the company's overseas online platform, rose more than 180 percent from a year earlier.

CJ Olive Young said it would continue to expand its K-beauty curation and upgrade in-store services, including introducing shopping-support devices, at stores in tourist-frequented areas.

"The fact that more foreign customers are returning to Korea during the sales period shows that Olive Young has become more than a representative K-beauty brand," a company official said. "We will continue to widen the points of contact between K-beauty brands and global customers."

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [[email protected]]