Korea’s largest beauty retailer CJ Olive Young and Sephora have entered a strategic partnership to scale K-beauty globally.
🤝 From rivalry to alliance: Starting in the second half of the year, curated K-beauty zones will launch online and in selected stores. The rollout begins in the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, with expansion to the UK, Australia, and the Middle East planned by 2027.
The details
Strategic lever: Olive Young brings assortments, trends, and brands straight from the Korean market. Sephora provides the global infrastructure—more than 3,400 stores across 35 countries—opening international shelf space for small and mid-sized K-beauty brands.
K-boom with entry barriers: Sephora exited South Korea in 2024 after failing to gain traction against Olive Young. Internationally, however, both sides now see significant growth potential together.
- Re-entry for Sephora: Direct access to trends at the source—without having to rebuild a local market presence.
- Objective: Combine complementary strengths where K-beauty demand exists but scalable access has been limited.
Go-to-market: Integrated campaigns, pop-ups, and cross-promotions. The partnership complements Olive Young’s own expansion, which kicks off with its first U.S. flagship in California.
💋 Sector context
K-beauty has moved from niche to global mainstream. South Korea’s cosmetics exports surpassed $11 billion for the first time in 2025, with the U.S. as the largest single market—ahead of France.
Global retailers struggle in Asia because speed, channels, and consumer trends are driven locally. China shows this starkly: in 2025, around 57% of beauty sales were captured by domestic brands.
Bottom line: To crack Asia, global players need local partners. At the same time, Sephora is exporting Korea’s trend-speed system into global retail scale.
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