Olive Young's newly renovated shop in Myeong-dong caters to foreign visitors

Olive Young has opened its first store dedicated to foreign visitors to Korea, aiming to promote the country’s beauty products worldwide, according to the curator and seller, Wednesday.

The new two-story shop in Myeong-dong, a popular tourist shopping district in Seoul, boasts the brand’s biggest store — with a floor area of 1,160 square meters. Olive Young Myeongdong Town was renewed after a decision to invest in the shop that saw 90 percent of its average 3,000 daily customers hail from overseas.

The Myeong-dong shop is one of the CJ Group subsidiary’s “globally specialized” stores nationwide including those in Busan, Jeju Island and Dongdaemun in Seoul. The shops are marketed to foreign consumers by providing Chinese, Japanese and English services in person and enabling international shoppers to browse brand products from their home countries via the brand's Global Mall online channel.

“Olive Young Myeongdong Town, by taking advantage of the brand’s outstanding popularity among local and foreign consumers, will introduce the country’s beauty products that were made by local small to medium-sized firms and curated by us,” an official from the brand said.

Product labeling and section displays are indicated in Korean and English, while other in-store services are provided in English, Japanese and Chinese. QR codes displayed around the store link to an online map of the store showing the locations of different products. Impulse items shelved at the front of the shop and widely exposed spaces include products that are particularly popular among foreign shoppers such as mask packs and sunblock lotion.

At a corner on the second floor is a booth helping customers with tax refunds and memberships sign-up for discount coupons and other shopping perks. One of the officials said they also considered language skills as one of the priorities in hiring clerks for the new store that has 180 employees. She said some clerks can speak four languages.

The brand that has another store in Myeong-dong said the two shops saw sales to foreigners from Jan. 1 to Oct. 31 this year jump 840 percent compared to the same period last year. Chinese tourists accounted for the most customers before the COVID-19 pandemic. Now visitors include those from Southeast Asia, Japan and English-speaking countries, according to the company. The brand’s global mall sales to 150 countries this year also jumped 77 percent from last year.