18.94 million. That's the number of foreign visitors to Korea last year, an all-time high. As the number of inbound tourists surges, the retail industry is moving quickly to target them. The three leading brands known as so-called "Ol-Da-Mu" stores (Olive Young, Daiso, and Musinsa) have emerged as new powerhouses in retail. As so-called "Ol-Da-Mu" stores (Olive Young, Daiso, and Musinsa) expand their businesses amid foreign interest and maintain growth, the range of consumer items that represent Korea is gradually diversifying. This paper examines the characteristics and expansion trends of spaces newly incorporated into foreign consumer routes and looks into channels cited as the next so-called "Ol-Da-Mu" stores (Olive Young, Daiso, and Musinsa). [Editor's note]
On the 23rd at 3 p.m. in front of Exit 3 of Seongsu Station in Seongdong District, Seoul. Across from an Olive Young store, pharmacies with large signs were lined up. On the exterior LED boards, phrases such as "GRAND OPEN" and "TAX REFUND" floated by. Most customers browsing in and outside the stores were foreign tourists carrying shopping bags.
The inside felt different from an ordinary neighborhood pharmacy. Products were displayed by function—weight control, skin elasticity, hangover relief, gut health—and notices in English, Chinese, and Japanese were posted. A pharmacist was on site, but over-the-counter drugs and health functional foods (HFFs) accounted for a larger share than prescription dispensing. Staff in uniforms explaining products in foreign languages also stood out.
According to related industries on the 8th, so-called "tourist-type pharmacies" targeting foreign visitors have increased recently in major commercial districts such as Seongsu-dong, Myeong-dong, and Hongdae. The foreign consumer route, once centered on fashion and beauty select shops and duty-free stores, is expanding to pharmacies. As demand continues for products related to skin care, dieting, and fatigue recovery, pharmacies have risen as a shopping channel.
Until now, pharmacies serving foreigners were concentrated in certain areas such as Gangnam, where plastic surgery and dermatology clinics are clustered, mainly to meet demand for post-procedure prescription drugs. But as dermatology procedures such as lasers and skin boosters have become mainstream, the purchase range has widened to include not only domestic prescription drugs but also over-the-counter drugs and HFFs.
In particular, so-called MD (hospital-only) products such as ointments and lotions prescribed by dermatology clinics have spread by word of mouth, and the cosmeceutical (cosmetics + pharmaceuticals) market is growing rapidly in the beauty and pharmaceutical industries. As products once used for post-procedure regeneration and soothing care spread into general consumption, foreign demand for pharmacy visits is also increasing.
There was a wide variety of over-the-counter products displayed on shelves—digestive aids, headache relievers, cold medicine, and wound-healing ointments—as well as HFFs such as vitamins, probiotics, and red ginseng. With positive reviews of domestic HFFs pouring in online, there is talk in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia that HFFs could expand as a second wave of K-beauty or K-food.
These shifts in foreign demand are also evident in the expansion strategies of Olive Young, Asung Daiso Co., and Musinsa, known as so-called "Ol-Da-Mu" stores (Olive Young, Daiso, and Musinsa). Olive Young has introduced a wellness specialty brand, Olive Better, and is strengthening its lineup of HFFs and inner beauty (ingestible cosmetics) products. Based on foreign offline purchase data from the first half of last year, wellness sales rose more than 30%, and inner beauty sales increased 55%. For some diet, collagen, and probiotic products, sales to foreign customers surged by nearly 200%.
Musinsa is expanding its beauty category while increasing wellness offerings, including inner beauty, through its separate service 29CM. While targeting the ultra-low-price cosmetics market with its private label, Musinsa Standard Beauty, 29CM has set up a dedicated space in offline stores to display inner beauty-related products.
According to the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) Tourism Data Lab, pharmacies accounted for 59.7% of foreign medical consumption cases (by department) from Feb. last year to Jan. this year. That far exceeds dermatology (21.8%) and plastic surgery (5.9%). In Seoul alone, pharmacies accounted for 62%, with consumption concentrated in Jung District (Myeong-dong), Mapo District (Seogyo-dong), and Gangnam District (Yeoksam and Nonhyeon), in that order.