CJ Olive Young said on the 6th that products catering to increasingly specific consumer preferences, including body-part-specific care items and intellectual property collaborations, drew strong demand during its September Olive Young Sale, held from the 30th of last month through the 5th. The sale is a regular discount event the retailer holds four times a year, in March, June, September and December.
An analysis of search and purchase data from the promotion showed a pronounced "home spa" trend, with consumers managing their skin and hair at home. During the weeklong event, online searches for hair masks and hand masks rose 68% and 69%, respectively, from a year earlier. The company attributed the increase to mask products expanding beyond the face to hair and hands, drawing more shoppers to related items.
Even in facial masks, consumers moved beyond basic moisturizing and soothing to pick products targeting specific skin concerns. Over the same period, online searches for pore-extracting masks, used to draw out sebum, rose about fivefold, while searches for heated masks, which use warmth to help clear sebum and impurities, more than doubled.
Collaboration products built on characters and other intellectual property drew attention from the opening days of the sale. Olive Young launched a large-scale campaign with Sanrio Characters, the global character IP franchise, as the event began. On the first day, "Sanrio" and "Hello Kitty" ranked among the top three search terms on the company's online mall. Regionally themed items, including the Ten by Ten Regional Hello Kitty Figure Keyring Set and Jeongnammimyeonggwa's Gongju chestnut bread, posted strong sales.
"Through this Olive Young Sale, we saw customers actively searching for products that match their own tastes and increasingly specific care needs," an Olive Young official said. "We will continue to quickly identify shifts in customer interest and spending, and lead beauty and wellness trends through differentiated curation that helps shoppers discover new products."
