Olive Young: non-capital Chuseok sales up 62%, teen spending up over 200%
In short
CJ Olive Young said daily average sales at its stores outside the capital area rose 62% during the Chuseok holiday of Sept. 24-27 compared with the previous two weeks, while capital-area stores rose 36%. Teenage customers showed the largest gain, with daily average sales up more than 200% and average transaction value up over 50%, according to the company data reported by Yonhap. Sales to customers in their 40s, the parents of teenagers, rose more than 100%.
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CJ Olive Young said daily average sales at its stores outside the capital area rose 62% during the Chuseok holiday of Sept. 24-27 compared with the previous two weeks, Sept. 10-23, according to Yonhap. Over the same comparison, capital-area stores posted a 36% increase, the company said. [ 2 ]
Teenage customers accounted for the largest increase. Their daily average sales rose more than 200% and their average transaction value rose more than 50%, the company data showed. Sales to customers in their 40s, described as the parents of teenagers, rose more than 100%, and the daily average number of customers buying at non-capital-area stores rose 27%. Yonhap reported that the company interpreted the gains as holiday visitors using local stores, with family-unit spending partly reflected. [ 1 , 2 ]
By product category, daily average sales of color cosmetics rose 63% and skincare 50%, while health products rose 44% and fragrance 39%. Health foods rose 19%, and the company said purchases broadened beyond established health foods such as vitamins, red ginseng, omega-3 and probiotics to inner-beauty products aimed at weight and skin management and to products for sleep and stress relief. [ 2 ]
By region, Jeolla recorded the highest growth at 72%, followed by Gangwon at 66%, Gyeongsang at 62% and Chungcheong at 61%. The company said the trend also appeared at last year's Chuseok, when non-capital-area daily average sales rose 45% from a year earlier against 15% in the capital area. [ 2 ]
Olive Young said it is investing 123.8 billion won this year in new non-capital-area stores, renovations and logistics infrastructure, and plans to place 43 of its 78 stores larger than 100 pyeong outside the capital area. In August it opened a 900-pyeong Nampo Town store in Busan, its largest outside the capital area, expanding an existing 200-pyeong store and assigning three beauty consultants, a first for a non-capital-area location, according to the company. [ 2 ]
The company also said the share of non-capital-area stores among its top 100 stores by foreign customer numbers rose from 27% in 2023 to 52% last year, as foreign tourists visited more areas outside the capital. [ 2 ]
Why it matters
The figures are a company release on holiday shopping, so their main significance is for the domestic retail and beauty sector: they suggest holiday travel shifted consumer spending toward regional stores. Olive Young is also expanding outside the capital area, with 123.8 billion won budgeted this year for new stores, renovations and logistics there, the company said.
Key facts
- Olive Young's daily average sales at non-capital-area stores rose 62% during the Chuseok holiday of Sept. 24-27 versus Sept. 10-23, while capital-area stores rose 36%, the company said. [ 2 ]
- Teenage customers' daily average sales rose more than 200% and their average transaction value rose more than 50%. [ 1 , 2 ]
- Sales to customers in their 40s rose more than 100%, and the daily average number of customers at non-capital-area stores rose 27%. [ 2 ]
- By category, daily average sales of color cosmetics rose 63%, skincare 50%, health products 44%, fragrance 39% and health foods 19%. [ 2 ]
- By region, Jeolla stores posted the largest increase at 72%, followed by Gangwon at 66%, Gyeongsang at 62% and Chungcheong at 61%. [ 2 ]
- At last year's Chuseok, non-capital-area daily average sales rose 45% from a year earlier, above the 15% rise in the capital area, the company said. [ 2 ]
- Olive Young said it is investing 123.8 billion won this year in new non-capital-area stores, renovations and logistics, and plans to place 43 of its 78 stores larger than 100 pyeong outside the capital area. [ 2 ]
- The share of non-capital-area stores among its top 100 stores by foreign customer numbers rose from 27% in 2023 to 52% last year, the company said. [ 2 ]
Confirmed by several sources
- Teen customers' daily average sales at Olive Young stores outside the capital area rose more than 200% during the Chuseok holiday period. [ 1 , 2 ]
- Non-capital-area stores' daily average sales rose 62% during Sept. 24-27 compared with Sept. 10-23, against a 36% rise in the capital area, according to CJ Olive Young data. [ 2 ]
- The company attributed the increase to customers visiting the provinces for the holiday using local stores. [ 1 , 2 ]
Still unclear
- The company gave no total sales or revenue figures in won for the period. Only percentage changes were provided in the Yonhap report, so the size of the business behind the growth is not stated.
- How much of the increase came from holiday visitors rather than local residents is not broken down. Yonhap reported that the company interpreted the gain as holiday visitors using local stores and as partly reflecting family-unit spending, but no separate visitor data was given.
- The full text of Kukmin Ilbo's report is not available. Only its headline summary was provided, so its account cannot be compared in detail with Yonhap's.