At the end of 5 this year, South Korea's largest beauty retailer Olive Young marked a symbolic moment in the US market: Olive Young's first offline store in Pasadena, California, officially opened.
On opening day, large numbers of consumers lined up to enter, with the queue at one point extending beyond the block. For Olive Young, which has long regarded the US as one of its most important overseas markets, this store was not only a key move in its globalization strategy but also seen by outsiders as an important attempt to formally export the "K-Beauty retail model" to the US.
However, the initial buzz did not last long. As more consumers began using the US site and experiencing the local service system, disputes over products, membership, and promotion mechanisms surfaced and quickly spread on social media.
On platforms like Reddit and TikTok, many consumers began expressing disappointment with Olive Young's US store. Some complained about too few products, others questioned reduced membership benefits, and some felt promotions were far less abundant than on the Korean site. Some users even said directly: "This is not the Olive Young I know."
As the controversy grew, Olive Young subsequently issued a public statement addressed to US consumers, specifically responding to issues regarding product assortment, membership system, promotions, and product formulations.
▍Screenshot from Olive Young US Instagram account
For a retail company that has just entered the US market, issuing such a response in the early days of opening is uncommon. This has led outsiders to wonder: why does Olive Young, almost regarded as the "K-Beauty trendsetter" in Korea, encounter such a stark contrast in the US?
According to YAN BEAUTY REVIEW's observation, what US consumers are most dissatisfied with is not any specific product, but the realization that the Olive Young they are familiar with is disappearing.
In recent years, as K-beauty has continued to heat up in the North American market, more and more US consumers have purchased Korean beauty products through Olive Young Global. For these consumers, Olive Young's appeal has never been just a shopping website; it is more like a gateway to Korean beauty trends.
Brands that have just become popular in the Korean market often appear on Olive Young first; various collaboration products, limited gift sets, and emerging brands also usually get exposure here first. At the same time, high-frequency promotions, membership systems, and marketing methods unique to Korean retail such as "1+1" have gradually become familiar shopping experiences for overseas consumers.
But after the US site launched, many consumers found that these elements that once defined Olive Young's character are diminishing.
● First, many users found that the SKU count at Olive Young's US offline store is significantly lower than at Olive Young's offline stores in Korea.
Some consumers reported that popular brands and SKUs they used to buy at Olive Young did not appear on the US site. Some hot-selling new products, limited items, and niche brands from the Korean market were also hard to find. In response to consumer doubts about product variety, Olive Young added a "Product Assortment" section in its statement, saying it will continue to introduce more brands, exclusive collaborations, and new products in the future. To some extent, this also means that consumer complaints about insufficient SKUs are not groundless.
● Compared with product quantity, changes in promotions further amplified users' sense of disparity.
In the Korean market, Olive Young has long been not just a retailer but a mature marketing system. Brand weeks, membership days, 1+1 activities, and various gift mechanisms together form an important part of its consumer experience.
US consumers found that these familiar promotions are almost nowhere to be seen on the US site. In response, Olive Young also addressed this in its statement, saying it will launch more exclusive promotions and membership benefits in the future. But for consumers, this response is more like an admission of a real problem with Olive Young US: at least at the current stage, the US version of Olive Young has not yet developed a mature operating system like the Korean market.
● What truly triggered strong dissatisfaction among some long-time users was a series of changes to the original shopping system as Olive Young's US local business officially launched.
Before the US site launched, many US consumers had been purchasing Korean beauty products through Olive Young Global and had accumulated corresponding membership levels and points benefits. However, with the official launch of Olive Young's US local platform, US consumers found that they could no longer place orders through Olive Young Global and were forced to switch to the US site for shopping, and the Olive Young Global website clearly stated that it does not ship to the US region.
▍Screenshot from Olive Young US standalone site
According to YAN BEAUTY REVIEW's observation, compared with the Korean site, Olive Young Global had a slightly streamlined SKU count, but popular brands and best-selling products were basically kept in sync with new arrivals. However, after the US site launched, many consumers found that the product selection on the platform was noticeably reduced, and some products that could originally be purchased on the Global site did not appear on the US site.
In addition to the decline in product variety, changes in pricing and promotion mechanisms also caused consumer dissatisfaction. Some consumers reported on overseas social platforms such as Reddit that some identical products were priced higher on the US site than on the Global site, and promotions common on the Korean and Global sites such as "1+1", brand weeks, and limited-time discounts were also significantly reduced on the US site. This gave many consumers a direct impression: the US version of Olive Young not only has fewer products but also higher prices and fewer discounts.
For consumers who have long used Olive Young Global, what they lost was not just a shopping website, but the familiar Korean local shopping experience. This has also become an important reason why the controversy continues to ferment.
From consumer feedback, the reduction in products, scaled-back promotions, and membership system adjustments may seem like different issues, but they actually point to the same core contradiction: US consumers expect the Korean version of Olive Young, while Olive Young is building the American version of Olive Young.
In fact, the controversy over Olive Young's US site is not merely due to operational mistakes.
From the consumer's perspective, their most direct feelings are fewer products, higher prices, fewer promotions, and adjusted membership benefits; but from the corporate perspective, these changes actually reflect the real challenges Olive Young faces in its transformation from a Korean local retailer to a US local retailer.
For a long time, Olive Young's main way of serving US consumers was cross-border e-commerce. US users placed orders through Olive Young Global, and products were shipped directly from Korea. Under this model, what US consumers encountered was actually a simplified "Korean version of Olive Young"—although logistics took longer, they could buy products launched simultaneously in the Korean market and participate in some Korean market promotions.
▍Olive Young US Store
With the official launch of the US independent site and offline stores, Olive Young's role began to change. It is no longer just a platform selling Korean beauty products to US consumers, but is trying to become a local retailer truly rooted in the US market.
However, from cross-border e-commerce to local retail, what seems to be just a change in business model actually means that supply chain, regulations, inventory management, membership system, and even brand cooperation models all need to be rebuilt.
The most direct impact comes from the product level. As Korea's largest beauty retailer, Olive Young has more than 1400 stores in Korea and has established long-term cooperative relationships with a large number of local brands. But after entering the US market, not all brands are willing to enter US channels simultaneously, and not all products can be sold directly in the US.
Especially in special categories such as sunscreen, there are obvious differences between the US FDA and the Korean regulatory system. Some new sunscreen ingredients widely used in the Korean market have not yet been approved in the US, which makes it impossible for some products to directly replicate the sales model of the Korean market.
At the same time, local warehousing and inventory management also place higher demands on the number of SKUs. For cross-border e-commerce, products can be centrally stored in Korean warehouses and shipped according to orders; but for the US local retail system, each additional SKU means higher inventory costs, more complex supply chain management, and greater risk of unsold inventory. This is also one of the important reasons why consumers find that the product selection is significantly less than the Global site after the US site launched.
In addition to products, price issues are also closely related to localization. In the past, when shipping from Korea, Olive Young was able to maintain price advantages by relying on Korea's mature local supply chain system and procurement scale. But after entering the US market, warehousing rent, labor costs, local logistics, and compliance operating costs have all increased significantly.
For consumers, what they see is that the same products have become more expensive; but for the company, this price difference largely comes from the higher operating costs in the US market.
The reduction in promotional activities also follows a similar logic. In the Korean market, Olive Young has formed a mature brand cooperation system and marketing mechanism after years of operation. From "1+1" activities to brand weeks, to various member-exclusive benefits, all of these are built on a large user base and stable brand cooperation foundation.
The US market is still in its early stages, and neither brand resources nor consumer scale has reached the maturity of the Korean market. This means that those promotional activities that Korean consumers take for granted cannot be simply replicated in the US market.
In fact, from the response statement released by Olive Young this time, it can be found that it did not deny the issues raised by consumers, but used expressions such as "expanding", "coming soon", and "continuously optimizing" in multiple aspects such as products, promotions, and membership system.
But for many consumers, what they miss is not a specific product or a specific discount. What they miss is the complete consumer experience represented by the Korean version of Olive Young. And this is precisely the biggest challenge Olive Young faces in the US market.
For the Chinese beauty industry, the controversy Olive Young encountered this time may be more noteworthy than the opening of its first US store itself.
In the past few years, the Chinese beauty industry has been discussing a question: Can China give birth to its own Olive Young?
From THE COLORIST, WOW COLOUR, to HARMAY, KKV and other new retail formats, all have been regarded as potential candidates for the Chinese version of Olive Young. The common characteristic of these companies is that they all try to break through the traditional cosmetics counter model and create a brand discovery platform and entry point for young consumers through the form of collection stores, which is very similar to Olive Young's development path in Korea.
But from the results, the Chinese market has still not seen a true "Olive Young". The reason is precisely that most people see Olive Young's stores, but ignore the ecological capabilities behind them. The reason Olive Young is important today is not just because it has more than 1400 stores. More importantly, it has deeply embedded itself in the Korean beauty industry chain.
For consumers, it is a trend entry point; for brands, it is a traffic entry point; for emerging brands, it is an incubation platform; for the entire industry, it even plays the role of "product selector" and "weather vane".
The growth paths of many Korean local brands are almost highly consistent: first enter Olive Young - obtain consumer feedback - enter the sales rankings - form social media spread - and finally grow into a national brand. What Olive Young sells has never been just shelf space, but brand growth opportunities.
And this is also the direction that the Chinese beauty retail industry is still exploring. In the past few years, many Chinese collection stores expanded rapidly, but many companies eventually fell into homogeneous competition. The reason is that most players built retail spaces, not industrial ecosystems. This is also what makes Olive Young truly difficult to replicate: brand discovery ability, trend-making ability, and industrial resource integration ability.
This is also why Olive Young faces such great challenges after entering the US. Because its core competitive advantage is not Korean-made products, but the Korean-made ecosystem. And once the ecosystem leaves its original soil, the difficulty of replication will far exceed that of the products themselves.
From this perspective, the controversy over Olive Young's US site actually taught the Chinese beauty industry a lesson in globalization. In the past, when the industry discussed going overseas, it often focused on whether products were innovative enough, whether marketing was international enough, and whether channels were rich enough. But Olive Young's case reminds the industry: when a company truly goes global, the biggest challenge is often not entering the market, but how to bring its core capabilities along. This is true for brands, and equally true for retailers.
Products can be exported, stores can be replicated, but an industrial ecosystem formed through years of accumulation is very difficult to move intact to another country.
And this may be the question most worth thinking about for the Chinese beauty industry behind the controversy over Olive Young's US site.