Major U.S. Retailers Embrace K-Beauty... Online Success Expands to Offline Shelves [Weekend Money]

Target to Launch "Beauty Studio" at Over 600 Stores
70% of U.S. Cosmetics Sales Are Offline... Growth Prospects Brighten

On the 13th, customers mostly foreigners are choosing cosmetics at a cosmetic shopping mall in Myeongdong, Seoul. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

The formula for K-beauty's entry into the U.S. market is changing. While in the past, growth was driven by word-of-mouth on online platforms such as Amazon and TikTok, now Korean beauty brands are making direct inroads into major offline distribution networks in the U.S. Target, a major American retailer, symbolically underscored this shift by bringing K-indie beauty (small and independent cosmetics companies) brands to the forefront.

In a recent cosmetics sector report, Shinhan Investment Corp. analyzed that Target's strategy to strengthen its beauty category is a positive sign for K-beauty's offline penetration in the U.S. market. The brokerage maintained its 'overweight' view on the cosmetics sector.

Starting September 10, Target plans to launch the "Target Beauty Studio" at more than 600 stores across the United States, as well as on Target.com. It will feature a total of 90 brands with over 1,600 products, and more than two-thirds of these brands will be newly introduced to Target's shelves.

Notably, Target is now highlighting beauty as a separate growth driver. The company ended its five-year shop-in-shop partnership with Ulta Beauty this year and has since pursued the enhancement of its own beauty category.

Financial results support this trend. In the second quarter, Target's beauty sales reached $3.64 billion (approximately 5.0265 trillion won), up 7.2% from the previous year—a pace exceeding the company's overall sales growth rate of 5.3%. In its earnings conference call, Target also mentioned beauty as one of its high-growth categories.

The direction of the strategy is key. Target is pursuing a model where brands that have proven themselves online are newly discovered by customers in offline stores. Hyunjin Park, a research analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp., commented, "Target is focusing on 'discovery,' enabling consumers to find new brands rather than simply selling large volumes of cosmetics," and added, "This creates a favorable environment for K-beauty, which has already proven its appeal among consumers on TikTok and Amazon."

A number of K-beauty brands specifically mentioned by Target are gaining attention. The lineup includes "Amuse" from Shinsegae International, "Rom&nd" from iFamily SC, "KAJA" from Memebox, "Dr. Melaxin" from Brand501, "Purito" from Hynature, and "Ingredients Editor" from Olive International, among others. In particular, Memebox's KAJA announced that it will simultaneously launch 40 product SKUs at 611 stores.

This move is interpreted as evidence that leading U.S. retailers now recognize K-beauty as an independent growth category. K-beauty is no longer a niche brand favored only by a select segment of online shoppers; it is advancing to the stage where major distributors are actively placing these brands on their shelves and introducing them directly to consumers.

The U.S. cosmetics distribution structure gives even greater weight to this trend. Park added, "The U.S. cosmetics market operates with a 30:70 split between online and offline channels. The fact that K-beauty's growth axis is expanding from online to offline provides grounds for raising the earnings outlook for cosmetic companies in the second half of the year."

K-beauty has now moved beyond vague expectations of "selling well abroad." It is entering a phase where American consumers are picking up in physical stores the brands they first discovered online. Target's shelves will be the next stage where these changes can be confirmed in concrete numbers.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.