On the 17th, at Olive Young N Seongsu in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong District, Seoul. When the store opened at 10 a.m., more than 100 customers who had been lining up since early morning began entering one after another. Most were foreign tourists, diverse in race, age, and gender.
Those who entered the store quickly headed for the third floor. They were there to make advance reservations for the Skin Scan service, which uses AI (artificial intelligence) to analyze skin and scalp and provides tailored consulting. An on-site staffer said, "We offer this service to 30 to 40 people a day on a first-come, first-served basis, and some foreign customers start lining up from 8:30 a.m."
Olive Young N Seongsu, which opened on Nov. 22 last year, is Olive Young's first flagship innovation store. It brings together the know-how Olive Young has built over 25 years since it opened its first store in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam, in 1999. The store spans five floors and 4,628 square meters (1,400 pyeong), making it the largest among Olive Young locations nationwide. Floors 1 to 3 are exhibition and sales spaces, the fourth floor is a customer lounge and an area used by the brands in residence, and the fifth floor serves as office space for employees.
On this day, the first floor of Olive Young N Seongsu was hosting various promotions under a first-birthday party concept to mark the first anniversary of its opening. Hands-on activities such as traditional knot tying and a guest book stamp station were set up, and the best-selling products from the specialty zones inside Olive Young N Seongsu were introduced. Customers were also seen taking "proof shots" at a photo zone in the center of the store.
Olive Young N Seongsu has surpassed 2.5 million cumulative visitors over the past year, emerging as a tourist attraction that draws an average of more than 7,000 people a day. It is credited with establishing beauty as a new commercial category and content in the Seongsu-dong area, which had previously been dominated by fashion brands.
According to a trend report Olive Young recently released by compiling internal and external data, floating population in the Seongsu area from November last year to October this year increased by about 20 million people (about 7.4%) from a year earlier. During this period, the number of card transactions in Seongsu reached 77.06 million, up 8.2% year over year, with transactions by foreign cardholders alone rising 79%, driving growth in the local market. Olive Young N Seongsu recorded the highest number of foreign transactions among single stores in the area.
Since Olive Young N Seongsu opened, the center of pop-up content in the Seongsu-dong area has also shifted to beauty. According to Sweet Spot, a company specializing in pop-up stores, the average number of beauty pop-ups held monthly in the Seongsu area has risen to 14 since Olive Young N Seongsu opened, a 75% increase from last year (eight).
Olive Young N Seongsu, in particular, has drawn strong interest from foreign tourists by emphasizing experiential elements. Over the one-year period from November last year to October this year, three out of four foreigners who visited Yeonmujang-gil in Seongsu also visited Olive Young N Seongsu.
At Olive Young N Seongsu, six professional beauty care services are offered, including skin and scalp consulting and personal color analysis. The store uses AI diagnostic devices and incorporates interactive elements that let customers communicate with beauty consultants and experience the services firsthand.
More than 30,000 customers have used the beauty care services at Olive Young N Seongsu, and more than half of them (54%) were foreigners. In particular, foreigners accounted for 87% of skin analysis consulting. An Olive Young representative said, "Through social media and other channels, the various experiential services are spreading quickly by word of mouth, and the number of foreign visitors keeps growing."
Through Olive Young N Seongsu, Olive Young presents new trends every season and gets validation from domestic and overseas customers. More than 150 new brands have been introduced at this store, and if they perform well in sales and other metrics, they expand into more than 1,400 stores nationwide. Recently, the company also introduced a Wellness specialty zone in line with the global trend of pursuing inner well-being beyond external beauty, suggesting a direction for the evolution of K-beauty.
Buoyed by the successful establishment of Olive Young N Seongsu, CJ Olive Young's performance is showing steep growth. In the third quarter of this year, CJ Olive Young posted 1.557 trillion won in revenue and 151.6 billion won in net profit. Revenue rose 26.2% year over year, marking a record quarterly high, and net profit increased 31.8%. Cumulative revenue for the first through third quarters came to 4.2531 trillion won, or 89% of last year's annual revenue (4.79 trillion won).
Yoo Young-hwan, Head of Team of Olive Young's Data Intelligence Team, said, "We will make today's Seongsu the global hub of K-beauty," adding, "At the center of that change will be Olive Young N Seongsu."