CJ Olive Young unveils its largest store in Seoul’s trendiest district
Right in the heart of Seongsu, Seoul’s vibrant hub for beauty, fashion and culture, a striking five-story glass landmark debuts as CJ Olive Young’s bold new flagship, Olive Young N Seongsu.
Spanning five floors and approximately 4,620 square meters, the location is the largest CJ Olive Young store in Korea. It is nearly nine times larger than the average Olive Young Town store, such as Olive Young Myeongdong Town and Hongdae Town, which serves as the brand’s regional flagship. The store name reflects CJ Olive Young’s forward-thinking vision, with “New” and “Next” symbolizing the beauty retailer’s future-oriented mindset, “Nest” representing the nurturing of emerging brands and trends and “Network” emphasizing the importance of customer relationships.
The reason why CJ Olive Young chose to establish a landmark K-beauty store in Seongsu was due to the influx of Gen Z tourists visiting the area. From January to October this year, sales at Olive Young stores in Seongsu rose by more than 90% year-on-year altogether, with sales from tourists surging nearly 300% during the same period thanks to Olive Young becoming a must-visit place for overseas visitors. Olive Young N Seongsu aims to enhance the customer experience for tourists, positioning itself as a stepping-stone toward becoming a global platform. To support this vision, CJ Olive Young has employed multilingual staff and introduced electronic English product labels.
Olive Young N Seongsu is more than just a store, it offers unique experiences and curated beauty selections for visitors. While traditional CJ Olive Young stores focus on showcasing and selling a wide range of products, Olive Young N Seongsu serves as a testing ground for cutting-edge marketing strategies and emerging trends.
The first floor begins with the Trend Fountain, an immersive exhibition space that reimagines health and beauty. Unlike typical stores that prioritize maximizing sales with numerous advertisements and product displays on the first floor, Olive Young N Seongsu has created a vibrant, engaging environment. The space includes a charming café and a pop-up zone, transforming it into what CJ Olive Young calls the “Trend Fountain” where visitors can freely enjoy and explore.
CJ Newsroom editors visited the store in November, where the first-floor pop-up zone hosted an exhibition celebrating “Olive Young’s 25th Anniversary Birthday Party.” The scene featured products from the “Olive Young Awards,” arranged on a pink table alongside tableware and desserts. Additionally, The Corner Goods Shop, CJ Olive Young’s first goods store, and offline locations for its health snack brand, Delight Project, were introduced as part of the shop-in-shop concept.
The second and third floors display 12 specialized zones, each tailored to a specific category. These zones are designed to resemble individual stores, with categories such as Color Makeup, Luxe Edit and Daily Skincare. In line with Gen Z’s consumption patterns, the store curates the latest K-beauty trends and offers immersive offline experiences, including scalp care and specialized skincare services.
Unlike traditional stores where products are tightly packed, the new store showcases items from categories such as skincare, color cosmetics, men’s products, fragrances, wellness and food in a spacious, more artistic arrangement. It offers the experience of walking through a gallery rather than simply browsing a beauty store.
CJ Olive Young curated a special space for teenage customers and tourists. The Hot & New Express Zone brings the latest K-culture trends to life, with items updated every three months to reflect Gen Z preferences. Additionally, a pop-up dedicated to stationery products, called Object Shop, invited visitors to customize their own decorations.
The store features specialized sections selling products that go beyond the typical beauty and health offerings, such as K-POP merchandise, stationery and innerwear, which are sure to catch the eye of shoppers. Trend Fountain showcases the latest trends, while K-pop NOW, a themed zone with seasonal pop-up stores from various K-pop artists, attracts tourists eager to experience Korean culture. The K-pop NOW section also includes merchandise from the idol group IZNA, formed through Mnet’s idol audition program I-LAND 2: N/a.
At Olive Young N Seongsu, offline experiences take center stage, offering visitors the chance to test products while receiving tailored usage tips and personalized recommendations.
Beauty consultants host themed makeup workshops in the makeup studio, each lasting about 80 minutes. The theme recommended by the beauty consultant on the day CJ Newsroom visited the store was “semi-smoky, perfect for Seongsu-dong in autumn.” For a quicker experience, visitors can also choose to go to the Quick Touch-up Bar where visitors can learn key makeup techniques in just 15 minutes, focusing on specific areas like lips, eyes and base makeup.
The store also hosts a Skin Fit Studio, too, where visitors can enjoy spa-like skincare treatments with specialized products. In the skincare zone, experts assess visitors’ skin conditions using specialized equipment and recommend personalized skincare routines and products based on the diagnosis. A CJ Newsroom editor visited the skincare zone and underwent a 20-minute skin diagnosis. The result was Caution stage, indicating that their skin type is dry and requires attention to sebum and pore care. The Olive Young beauty consultant provided specific home care recommendations exfoliating once a week using a scrub and peeling gel, as well as suggesting ingredients suited to the skin’s condition, such as retinol, panthenol and betaine. After explaining the recommended ingredients, the consultant offered a curated list of products containing them for a one-stop skincare solution.
The fourth floor is dedicated to VIP customers, business partners and CJ Olive Young employees. It offers a lounge area where company officials and executives can work together, a hall for seminars or conferences and the Connect Studio. This studio is a state-of-the-art space equipped with broadcasting equipment, allowing businesses to host live-commerce events. Additionally, the floor is home to The Olive Members Lounge, a premium retreat for VIP members, where visitors can indulge in beauty treatments while enjoying an array of food and beverages.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, CJ Olive Young started with its first store in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam, Seoul, in 1999 and has since evolved into a Korean-style one-stop-shop optimized for the domestic market. Over the years, it has played a pivotal role in driving the K-beauty industry by discovering and nurturing promising domestic small and medium-sized brands. In 2014, the company launched its mobile app, followed by the opening of its official online mall in 2017. Then, in 2018, Olive Young introduced the industry’s first Same-Day Delivery service, successfully implementing a multi-channel strategy that bridges online and offline platforms. Today, the company serves 15 million members across South Korea.
CJ Olive Young is poised to become the next global beauty and health platform. The opening of the Olive Young N Seongsu store marks the beginning of its journey toward global K-beauty expansion.
