Pilot Launch of Multilingual 'Personal Shopper' Service
Expansion of Shopping Convenience Services in 'Global Tourism Commercial Districts'
CJ Olive Young announced on the 24th that it will strengthen its offline store strategy targeting foreign customers to meet the rapidly increasing K-beauty demand from winter tourists. The plan is to enhance its role as a ‘K-Beauty Global Gateway’ by offering convenient shopping experiences with tourist-tailored services and showcasing small and indie beauty brands to global customers.
A scene of conducting the 'K-Beauty Docent Tour' for foreign customers at Olive Young store. Provided by Olive Young.
First, Olive Young will pilot the ‘Olive Young Personal Shopper’ service at its flagship store ‘Olive Young Gangnam Town’ in the Gangnam area of Seoul until the end of next month. The section from Gangnam Station to Samseong Station on Subway Line 2 is a commercial district frequently visited by tourists staying at nearby hotels and overseas medical tourists using dermatology and plastic surgery clinics. Because of this, there is a high demand for beauty shopping related to medical tourism, such as skin soothing, moisturizing, and sun care.
The Olive Young Personal Shopper service guides customers in four languages?Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese?and provides consulting on beauty products by category of interest. Customers using the service receive a welcome kit pouch as a basic gift, and depending on the purchase amount at Olive Young, they are offered gifts composed of various giveaways and a free hotel delivery service. Olive Young plans to expand the service after monitoring customer responses.
In addition, Olive Young is enhancing in-store services to improve shopping convenience for foreign customers. Stores with a high number of foreign visitors and a significant sales proportion are managed as ‘Global Tourism Commercial Districts.’ While there were only 10 to 20 Olive Young Global Tourism Commercial District stores in the mid-2010s, the number has now increased to over 110 in areas such as Myeongdong, Gangnam, Hongdae in Seoul, Busan, and Jeju.
For tourists visiting the Global Tourism Commercial Districts, Olive Young prioritizes assigning staff who can speak foreign languages and posts foreign language guides for ongoing major promotions throughout the stores. Electronic labels displaying product names in both Korean and English have been introduced to allow easy access to product information. The latest K-beauty brands and popular products among foreign customers are displayed near the store entrances in these districts. Promotions targeting tourists are held regularly. For example, in March, which includes Olive Young’s signature event ‘Ollyoung Sale,’ additional discounts are offered for payments over a certain amount made via Alipay.
Collaborations with global travel agencies and hotel chains are also continuously underway. Until June, Olive Young is selling partnership packages through the global travel platform Trip.com. Foreign tourists who purchase this package can receive Olive Young discount coupon books upon check-in at their accommodations. The ‘Courtyard Marriott Seoul Namdaemun’ hotel is operating a ‘Seoul Beauty Travel Package’ including Olive Young gift cards until the 31st of next month.
An Olive Young official said, “As Olive Young is recognized as the ‘representative platform for K-beauty’ not only by domestic but also foreign customers, we will continuously improve the online and offline shopping convenience for global customers as a stepping stone to support the overseas expansion of small beauty brands.”
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