CJ Olive Young (hereinafter Olive Young) said on the 21st that it will open Olive Young Pasadena at 58 Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, California, on the 29th. A U.S.-only online mall will also launch the same day.
Olive Young plans to leverage the curation capabilities and on-offline platform operations it has built over 27 years as a beauty-focused retailer in Korea to serve as a base that helps the global growth of K-beauty and K-wellness brands in the U.S. market.
Olive Young Pasadena is a single-story, large standalone store with a total floor area of 803 square meters (about 243 pyeong). The Colorado Blvd. area where the store will be located is a symbolic, high-income lifestyle district running through the northeast of Los Angeles (LA). Next to the Olive Young store is an Apple Store, and within a 1–2 minute walk there are also large stores of global premium brands such as Lululemon, Alo Yoga, and Tiffany & Co.
In the initial phase, the Pasadena store will showcase about 5,000 products from around 400 beauty and wellness brands. It features a balanced lineup of K-beauty brands proven popular at Olive Young in Korea, brands performing well in the North American market, and global brands reflecting U.S. local trends. To reflect fast-changing K-beauty trends, product curation on shelves will be updated as frequently as every two weeks.
The store layout focuses on delivering Olive Young's signature "beauty playground" experience, where customers discover new brands and products and find routines that fit them, tailored to the U.S. market. Representative features include shelves where shoppers can explore hallmark K-beauty ingredients such as hyaluronic acid and PDRN, and display zones that connect functional skincare with beauty tools such as gua sha and patches.
There is also a product trial area. It includes a sink where customers can try cleansing products, and a dedicated space to test K-beauty staples such as toner pads and sun care. To help local consumers better understand K-beauty, the store offers skin and scalp analysis services and one-point consulting on K-beauty skincare routines.
At the store entrance, a display will spotlight a single K-beauty brand. The space will serve as a channel for participating brands to promote flagship items or new products and conduct experiential marketing.
Olive Young will also roll out a U.S.-only online mall. The goal is to lay the foundation for an omnichannel strategy in which discovery and trials at offline stores lead to online purchases and repeat buys, and various services see consolidation across on and offline.
Online shopping convenience will also improve. Olive Young's global mall, operated worldwide, offers free shipping on purchases over $60, but the U.S. online mall will provide free shipping on purchases over $35. By leveraging a local logistics center established in Bloomington, California, delivery times will be cut to about half of the current five to seven business days.
Offline stores will be expanded in stages. Olive Young will first solidify its operating base in LA and the Western U.S., including California, and then broaden its footprint to key commercial districts in the central-southern region and the East, including New York.
Kwon Ga-eun, head of Olive Young's U.S. subsidiary, said, "Our first store in Pasadena is a forward base to showcase a wide range of Korean brands to the global market, grounded in the K-beauty insights and brand incubating capabilities Olive Young has built in Korea," adding, "We will work to ensure that even local consumers still unfamiliar with K-beauty can discover and make 'real K-beauty' part of their everyday routines through Olive Young's on-offline stores."