2 p.m. on the 16th at Olive Young N Seongsu “Makeup Studio” in Seongdong-gu, Seoul.

When Dennis Olmos, deputy store manager of Olive Young’s Westfield location in Los Angeles (LA), which is scheduled to open in May, sat down in front of the dressing table, a Korean Olive Young beauty consultant began a demonstration consultation. The session ranged from makeup advice such as “Muted (gray) tones can sometimes stand out too much” to lifestyle-focused questions including “How do you usually draw your eyeliner?” and “How often do you drink water?”

After receiving an 80-minute makeup session, Olmos said, “K-beauty’s strength is curating everything about the customer,” adding, “Asking about every detail from skin type to lifestyle habits and explaining it all professionally is exactly what I will be doing in the United States,” nodding in agreement.

With about two months left before the opening of its offline store in the United States, CJ Olive Young has brought local managers to Korea in an effort to transplant the “K-beauty” DNA. The aim is to go beyond simply opening a store in the U.S. and fully implement Olive Young’s strength in beauty curation and experience-based business models, turning it into a “mecca for K-beauty girls (women who use K-beauty products).”

From March 10 to 19, Olive Young conducted an “Olive Young U.S. Store Staff Korea Training (HQ Training)” program for eight participants, including managers responsible for its Pasadena and Westfield locations in the United States. The program paired each Korean employee with a local manager in a one-on-one format, allowing them to observe work processes and experience actual services at three key Olive Young stores, including Seongsu-dong.

The employees who took part in the training are experts with prior work experience at U.S. beauty select-shop chains such as Sephora and Ulta. Their move to Olive Young was driven by the status and popularity of K-beauty they witnessed in the field. Teresa Nicholas, store manager of Olive Young’s Pasadena location, said, “When I worked at Sephora, customers asked every day, ‘Where is the K-beauty section?’” and emphasized, “K-beauty used to be a niche product, but now it is mainstream, sought by one out of every three customers locally.”

Beyond simply expanding sales, Olive Young plans to enter the U.S. market with a strategy of exporting “Korean-style beauty culture” itself. To this end, it is bringing local managers to Korea for training and equipping them with the capabilities to train staff in the U.S. in line with the Olive Young style. After completing the training, Nicholas said, “I want to vividly recreate in the local market the Olive Young service I saw in Korea,” adding with a laugh, “I am a K-beauty ambassador.”

On the back of its global popularity, Olive Young posted record earnings last year. On a separate financial statement basis, last year’s revenue was KRW 5,833.5 billion, up 21.8% from the previous year (KRW 4,790.0 billion). Since achieving KRW 2 trillion in revenue in 2021, it has continued to grow each year. Last year’s operating profit was KRW 744.7 billion, an increase of 22.5% from the previous year (KRW 607.7 billion). Sales at the global online mall in the first half of last year (January–June) increased 70% year-on-year, with more than half of total sales generated in the United States.

In line with its overseas business expansion, from April 1 it will begin recruiting new employees under a “global track,” selecting talent with extensive overseas experience and strong language skills.

Olive Young plans to apply Korean-style services at its U.S. stores while localizing certain elements. An Olive Young representative said, “We have redesigned product recommendation methods and customer response guidelines to fit the local environment so that U.S. staff can intuitively understand them, and we plan to introduce beauty-specialized services tailored to the characteristics of the U.S. market.”

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