6 out of 10 customers are foreigners.. 'This place' in Seongsu-dong that you must visit when you come to Korea

[Financial News] Olive Young is evolving beyond a simple shopping space into an 'experiential tourism space'. 'Olive Young N Seongsu', considered a representative example, is actively attracting foreign consumers by differentiating concepts for each floor. This store, which features character photo zones and beauty test spaces instead of shopping displays, has about 60% of its visitors as foreigners.
On the 30th, the first floor of the Olive Young N Seongsu store in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, was filled with experience zones collaborated with 'Sanrio Characters' such as Hello Kitty and My Melody. Photo zones and spaces for 'maze finding', 'crossword puzzles', etc., were arranged throughout.
According to Olive Young, N Seongsu surpassed 1 million cumulative visitors within four months of its opening in November last year. In particular, the proportion of foreign sales accounts for about 70% of the total, ranking third in foreign payment transactions among Olive Young stores in Korea, following Myeongdong and Hongdae Town stores. An Olive Young official explained, "N Seongsu is not just a distribution base but also serves as a testbed where brand cultivation and customer response experiments are conducted simultaneously."
This store is equipped with experiential content on each floor to encourage visitor participation. The fourth floor is a VIP lounge, the third floor offers beauty diagnostics and ingredient-based curation, the second floor is a merchandise planning (MD) specialized area, and the first floor consists of pop-ups and content booths. Beauty experiences such as 'Skin Fit Studio', which offers skin diagnostics and customized routines, and 'Men's Brow Bar', where men's grooming experiences are possible, are consistently in demand with reservations filling up from the morning.
It also has the character of a brand incubating space. An Olive Young official stated, "With the opening of N Seongsu, 158 brands debuted, and among them, 7 brands have expanded to nationwide stores." The increase in sales targeting global customers is also evident. The cumulative number of foreign purchases at Olive Young stores nationwide from January to April this year is 3.6 million. Simply calculated, about 80% of the 4.5 million people who entered the country for tourism during that period visited Olive Young.
An Olive Young official said, "The cumulative number of members of Olive Young Global Mall surpassed 3.35 million as of June this year," adding, "We will continue to expand our contact points with global customers who routinely seek K-beauty."


localplace@fnnews.com Kim Hyunji Reporter