[Report] Parisians Cooking Pork Ribs... Korean Skincare Before Bed [K-Wave 3.0] ②

[New Year Feature] Checking the Global K-Wave Scene
Shopping at Kmart for Korean Ingredients
Processed Foods, Seasoned Vegetables, and Soups on Offer
Gimbap, Sandwiches, and Kimchi in High Demand
K-Beauty Gains Popularity on TikTok
Soaring

"I'm visiting my brother's house and planning to prepare pork ribs for dinner."

At the end of last year, at the well-known Korean supermarket "Kmart" located in the Opera district (Rue Sainte-Anne) of Paris, France, I met Maxim Carbon (27 years old), who filled his shopping basket with gochugaru labeled "100% Taeyangcho," pine mushrooms, radish, gochujang, and tempura flour. Having lived in Sillim-dong, Korea for a year, Carbon couldn't forget his first experience with Korean food, so after returning to France, he sought out Korean restaurants in Paris. However, most local Korean restaurants were run by Chinese owners and lacked the "authentic taste of Korea," so he eventually started making kimchi himself, frying chicken, and cooking various stews. Recently, he even made jokbal at home using YouTube recipes.

The combo lunchbox containing half-cut gimbap and fried chicken is one of the most popular ready meals at Kmart among locals in France. Soups include gamjatang and kimchi jjigae.

Carbon's parents' favorite food is Bibigo frozen dumplings from CJ CheilJedang. They always keep them stocked in the freezer. He explained, "Korean food is easy to cook because it is based on sauces like soy sauce, gochujang, and doenjang," adding, "As we started cooking Korean food at home more often, my family became interested as well, and now we all enjoy it together."

K-Food on the Parisian Dinner Table

Kmart is the place where you can most strongly feel the enthusiasm for Korean cuisine among French people. As scenes of eating Korean food are repeatedly shown in Korean dramas and content, more consumers are eager to try ready-made Korean dishes for themselves. In addition to processed Korean foods like Buldak Bokkeum Myeon, the store offers triangle gimbap, gimbap, Korean-style sandwiches, chicken and sweet-and-spicy fried chicken, jangjorim, kimchi (green onion and napa cabbage), seasoned vegetable side dishes, and even hot soups.

Maxim Carbon's Shopping Basket. Ingredients for making spicy pork ribs are packed in the shopping basket. Photo by Minji Lee.

The best-selling items are gimbap, sandwiches, and kimchi. In particular, after the Netflix series "K-Pop Demon Hunters" gained global popularity, sales of gimbap have noticeably increased. Gimbap cut in half, rather than sliced into individual pieces, is now selling better. As a result, at the Champs-Elysees branch, which offers the widest variety of ready meals, sales of ready meals have increased by about 60% compared to 2020. This has significantly contributed to annual sales growth, with 2024 annual sales reaching 27.8 million euros, up about 28% (6 million euros) from 21.8 million euros in 2021. The main sources of revenue are Korean food products (34%) and ready meals (34%).

Kimchi and soups, which are ready-to-eat meals, are sold at Kmart Champs-?lys?es branch. They also sell 120g small-pack kimchi, with a monthly production volume reaching about 2,000 units. All of this quantity is consumed exclusively within their own stores.

An image of a consumer eating kimchi like a salad during lunchtime. French consumers generally perceive kimchi as a health food and enjoy it like a salad.

The newly introduced seasoned vegetable side dishes have also received a positive response. Kimchi and seasoned vegetables are not consumed as side dishes with rice or soup, but rather as simple meals like salads. On this day, at a small table set up in one corner of the store, a local customer could be seen enjoying kimchi with chopsticks as if it were a salad. Yoo Jeonghee, a designer at Kmart, said, "We offer ready meals tailored to local consumers," adding, "For kimchi and ready meals, we adjust the seasoning to be less intense and provide intuitive explanations to help consumers better understand them."

France, the Gateway to Europe... K-Food and K-Beauty Become Everyday Life

France is the gateway to the European continent. Global trends often spread from the United States to Paris, France, and then across Europe and the Middle East. Europe is still in the early stages of K-brand expansion. For K-Beauty, it emerged as a mainstream trend starting in December 2024. As Gudai Global's Chosun Beauty Sunscreen gained popularity in the United States and the United Kingdom, K-Beauty content began to appear more frequently in the TikTok algorithms of French consumers. The speed of dissemination through social media has accelerated, and as more Millennials & Gen Z in France have experienced K-Beauty firsthand, demand has surged. This is also when the prestigious department stores in Paris began opening K-Beauty pop-up stores to attract brands.

The competitiveness of K-Beauty lies in ▲ high-functionality and high-efficacy products ▲ reasonable prices. Korean cosmetics ODM companies such as Cosmax and Korea Kolmar have strengthened their R&D capabilities and quickly incorporated consumer demand into their products. Among French consumers, Korean basic skincare products are already considered to outperform pharmacy dermocosmetics and luxury brands in terms of formulas and ingredients. In fact, luxury brands are now following the trend of PDRN ingredients popularized by K-Beauty. Last year, L'Oreal Group's cosmetics brand Lanc?me confirmed the effectiveness and popularity of PDRN and released basic products containing PDRN extracted from roses.

The stability of distribution has also played a significant role. The global beauty e-commerce platform Silicontwo established a logistics hub in Poland to target the European market, building a supply system that minimizes inventory delays. This enables them to supply products quickly to both department stores and online channels. This structure reduces the burden of overseas expansion for individual brands. Silicontwo is currently considering opening additional offline stores in Paris and plans to target new markets such as the Middle East, where they already have a logistics warehouse in Abu Dhabi.

Delphine Herve Toura, who has worked in the French beauty industry for 30 years as a merchandiser (MD), said, "In the past, K-Beauty received brief attention in France in 2015 and 2019, but it did not last due to COVID-19," adding, "The current K-Beauty trend is different in nature, as it is now recognized as professional skincare focused on functionality and ingredients."

Interior view of the Korean cosmetics exclusive store "MiiN" located on Montmartre Hill. Inside the store, the Korea skincare routine is organized into 10 steps and displayed on the shelves.

Delphine Herve Toura, Merchandiser (MD) for the Beauty Division at Samaritan Department Store, said, "Recently, K-Beauty brands have all ranked within the top five in sales, surpassing luxury brands," emphasizing the steep growth rate of K-Beauty sales.

Shopping products that Natalie Prado took out from her bag and showed. On that day, the store offered a big discount on the K-beauty brand "Purito" products for Black Friday, selling them for 9 euros.

Songzio, System, and Wooyoungmi Gather in the Marais District..."Still Unfamiliar Names"

Exterior view of the system store.

Inside the store's fitting area, a customer is examining the clothes they are wearing. The store staff identified "pants" as the most popular item among local consumers. The distinctive precise fit of Korean brand pants, along with the relatively lower price compared to outerwear or knitwear, seems to be accepted as a reasonable choice.

While K-Food and K-Beauty are in the market expansion phase, K-Fashion is still struggling to establish itself in its birthplace. In the Marais district of Paris, where K-Fashion brand stores are clustered, foot traffic was noticeably low. A staff member at a local brand store said, "About half of the sales in this area come from locals and half from tourists, but recently, sales to locals have dropped significantly." They explained, "With high inflation and an economic slowdown dampening consumer sentiment, and with online shopping increasing, there isn't much foot traffic even during Black Friday." It appears that tourist sales have also declined as the winter season has begun.

The Marais district is known as the heart of Parisian fashion. It is home to a variety of brands, from Uniqlo and local street brand Dr?le de Monsieur to globally popular brands like Comme des Gar?ons and Supreme. At the far right end of the Marais district, leading Korean designer and high-end fashion brands such as Songzio, System, and Wooyoungmi have established their presence.

Exterior view of the Songzio store. On the left, Songzio menswear and ZZERO products are sold. On the right is the women's clothing store that opened in September last year.