Korean cosmetics are moving beyond being online hit products sought by some U.S. consumers to becoming mainstream items that the public encounters daily and buys repeatedly. Online, purpose-driven consumption is growing, with shoppers choosing specific K-beauty brands and seeking out purchase channels, while offline, sales networks are rapidly widening through major retail chains. The industry says several K-beauty brands are shedding "flash trends" that rely on a single hit product and are beginning to build independent competitiveness.
On the 27th, according to U.S. beauty trade outlet Beautymatter, the most-searched beauty brand keyword during Amazon Prime Day in the United States, held from on the 23rd to the 26th of last month (local time), was "Medicube" by APR(278470). Medicube ranked No. 1 in Prime Day beauty brand sales for the second straight year.
Other K-beauty brands such as Anua, Laneige, and Beauty of Joseon also rose across the search rankings. K-beauty's share of total beauty searches during Prime Day expanded from 6.5% last year to 10.5% this year.
A similar trend appeared in a survey by U.S. retail trade outlet Retailboss. Medicube recorded about 99,300 visits to the Ulta Beauty online mall via Google searches in the first half of this year, ranking No. 2 among all brands. During the same period, Anua, operated by The Founders, ranked No. 5 with about 55,800, and Dr. Mellaxin of Nextplayer ranked No. 7 with about 46,600.
The figures count the number of times consumers searched for brand or product-related keywords on Google and clicked an organic search result, not an ad, to move to the Ulta Beauty online mall. Because consumers with interest in a specific brand directly went to the platform selling the product, it is evaluated as an indicator close to the purchase-consideration stage.
K-beauty brands also ranked high in search inflows at Sephora, another major U.S. beauty distribution channel, alongside global brands. AESTURA, a derma cosmetics brand of Amorepacific(090430), recorded about 89,000 to rank No. 6. Beauty of Joseon, operated by Goodai Global, also ranked No. 9 with about 63,300.
The industry views this trend as a signal that K-beauty's growth engine is expanding beyond simple social media virality to the brands' own competitiveness. If viral content initially introduced brands to consumers, now a structure is forming in which consumers remember brand names, then directly visit major distribution channels to review product lines.
◇ Major U.S. retailers expand K-beauty product lines
The market size and consumer base are also expanding quickly. According to market research firm NIQ, K-beauty sales in the United States over the past 52 weeks were $2.8 billion (about 4.1 trillion won), up 48.1% from a year earlier. The share of U.S. households that purchased K-beauty products also rose to 28.7%.
Currently, 76% of K-beauty sales in North America occur in e-commerce. Offline distribution channels such as big-box stores, warehouse clubs, and drugstores are viewed as markets with relatively ample room to develop.
Recently, major U.S. retailers have been rapidly expanding product lines to draw the K-beauty demand seen online into offline stores. Target quadrupled its K-beauty offering this spring and added more than 150 new items, including skincare and color cosmetics.
Individual brand placements are also growing to the scale of thousands of stores. Medicube entered more than 1,500 Target stores in the United States in April. Starting last month, it began expanding its sales network to about 3,000 Walmart stores. It is setting up dedicated displays centered on flagship products popular online, such as Zero Pore Pads, Collagen Gel Cream, and Collagen Night Wrapping Mask.
The Face Shop of LG H&H(051900) also entered 1,600 Walmart stores, the largest retailer in the United States, on the 26th. Following its entry into about 1,900 Target stores in August last year, it has expanded sales channels to Walmart.
Kwon Woo-jung, an analyst at Kyobo Securities, said, "Wider offline penetration can secure consumers different from the existing customer base, and because it gathers consumers with a high intention to buy, the conversion rate is high."