The business map of the fashion industry is changing. Beyond their core business of apparel, companies are expanding their territory into non-apparel categories such as cosmetics and eyewear. Traditional fashion corporations are growing beauty brands to strengthen profitability, and online fashion platforms are accelerating category diversification to increase transaction volume ahead of initial public offerings (IPOs). With consumption slowing and growth in the apparel market stagnating, analysts say the industry as a whole is shifting away from an apparel-centered structure.
According to related industries on the 19th, fashion platform Musinsa plans to launch eyewear (glasses) products this summer through its private brand (PB) Musinsa Standard. If the products are actually released, a competitive landscape is expected to form with domestic eyewear specialists such as Gentle Monster and Blue Elephant.
This month, Musinsa Standard set up a beauty-only space in its store and filed trademark applications for Musinsa Standard Pet, Musinsa Standard Deli (food), and Musinsa Standard Outdoor. The company said it was preemptively securing trademarks, but the industry interprets it as a move to expand business into various lifestyle areas.
Zigzag, the style commerce platform run by Kakao Style, plans to introduce a beauty brand incubating program this year. It will select about 10 indie brands in skincare, makeup, and hair care and nurture them intensively for a year. Going beyond a simple sales channel, the structure discovers and grows brands, meaning the platform is expanding its role from distributor to brand planner.
Offline-focused fashion conglomerates are moving in a similar direction. Through Handsome's luxury skincare brand Oera, they are targeting the premium market. They are not only widening touchpoints through department stores and duty-free shops but also placed the beauty spa Oera la Maison on the sixth floor of The Handsome Haus Seoul, a flagship store that opened in Daechi-dong, Seoul. It is cited as a representative case of expanding into the luxury cosmetics market by leveraging the premium image held by fashion brands.
Shinsegae International is also strengthening its portfolio by fostering its own beauty brands and importing overseas niche perfumes. The strategy is to break away from an apparel-centered business structure and grow beauty into a core growth axis.
The biggest reason the fashion industry is focusing on beauty and accessories lies in the profit structure. Apparel carries a high inventory risk due to seasonal and trend changes. Fabric, sewing, and logistics expense are high, and because trends shift quickly, inventory management becomes central to operations. Products not sold within the season must be discounted by 30% to 50% or more, causing profitability to drop sharply. For brands pursuing a premium strategy, minimizing discount sales means they must shoulder the inventory burden as is.
Global consulting group Bain & Company, in a report released in Dec. last year titled "New survival strategies for the luxury market," said, "The apparel market, aside from consumption centered on top customers or special occasions, has been showing stagnation," adding, "Recently, fashion brands are responding to trend changes with capsule collections, limited releases, and storytelling focused on new products. In leather goods and footwear, demand has weakened as price sensitivity has increased."
By contrast, beauty and eyewear are evaluated as key categories that increase users' visit frequency. Apparel has a long purchase cycle, but cosmetics and glasses have a relatively short replacement cycle and are strongly consumable in nature. As purchase frequency rises, platform dwell time and transaction volume increase together.
Bain & Company analyzed, "Eyewear has maintained steady growth based on differentiated design and young consumer preferences and serves as an 'entry category' through which new customers first enter a brand," adding, "Beauty also continued to grow, with particularly strong demand centered on niche perfumes."
In particular, beauty products benefit from standardized packaging that boosts logistics efficiency and do not require complex inventory management by size or color. The industry sees beauty margins reaching as high as 30%.
The market outlook is also bright. Global consulting group McKinsey, in its "2025 beauty market report," said the global beauty industry grew to $450 billion, recording a 7% compound annual growth rate from 2022 to 2024. It projected average annual growth of about 5% through 2030.
An industry official said, "With the apparel market already entering a saturated phase, those who fail to raise their share of customers' daily lives will inevitably be weeded out," adding, "Expanding across the 'lifestyle' spectrum to generate synergy with fashion will be an attractive strategy for both platforms and large corporations."