Ultra-low-priced K-beauty products are spreading simultaneously across retail markets in South Korea, the United States and Britain. In Korea, large retailers including E-Mart are entering the sub-5,000-won beauty segment pioneered by Daiso, while retailers in Britain and the U.S. are steadily expanding their ranges of inexpensive Korean cosmetics. Retailers are pairing K-beauty's popularity with price competitiveness to turn the category into a new draw for shoppers.
E-Mart (139480.KS) on the 17th launched Solucian by Holika Holika, a five-item ultra-low-priced skincare line developed with Holika Holika, a beauty brand owned by cosmetics maker Enprani, according to industry sources. E-Mart introduced the Solucian cosmetics brand jointly with Enprani in 2014, after which Enprani ran the brand on its own. The two companies have now joined forces again after 12 years.
E-Mart has been widening its lineup since it began selling ultra-low-priced beauty items under 5,000 won in April last year. As of last month it carried about 120 products across 28 brands. Among them, an 18-item range called Glow Up by Beyond, developed jointly with LG H&H (051900.KS), proved popular enough to top 200,000 units in cumulative sales. Helped by the expansion of ultra-low-priced beauty items, E-Mart's skincare sales rose 26.6% from a year earlier in the January-August period.
"The success of E-Mart's beauty products comes from high quality despite the ultra-low prices, achieved through partnerships with cosmetics brand companies," an E-Mart official said. "We plan to strengthen the competitiveness of our high-quality, ultra-low-priced beauty range by combining our own retail strengths with the development and manufacturing know-how of cosmetics brand companies."
Korea's ultra-low-priced beauty market has grown since Daiso opened it up. Daiso teamed with Nature Republic in 2022 to launch an exclusive brand called Sikmulwon, followed the next year by VT Cosmetics' Reedle Shot. After Reedle Shot products sold out amid strong demand, Daiso brought in more beauty brands and expanded the business in earnest. Daiso's beauty category sales rose 85% in 2023 from a year earlier, then 144% in 2024 and 70% last year. Sales grew 30% from a year earlier in the January-August period this year.
The same trend is emerging overseas. One prominent example is Primark, the British discount fashion retailer. Through its private beauty label PS..., Primark sells Korean-made moisturizers, sheet masks and other K-beauty items for 0.75 to 5 pounds, or roughly 1,400 to 9,000 won. Early this month it also unveiled a K-Beauty Mini Mart in partnership with Pure Seoul, a K-beauty distributor, gathering secondary-brand products from Korean beauty companies including Neopharm, Cell Fusion C, Ingredient Editor and The Saem. Some of those brands are also sold at Daiso. Primark has generally priced the items under 10 pounds, setting a lower barrier than existing specialist K-beauty channels.
Five Below, the U.S. discount retailer, has likewise put K-beauty front and center as a category separate from general beauty. It runs K-beauty as a standalone menu within the beauty category of its official online store, offering about 80 products. Five Below describes its beauty business as a category that delivers the latest trends at low prices.
Retailers are expanding low-priced K-beauty because it lets them show both trend appeal and product differentiation, and because the short repurchase cycle helps keep customers coming back to stores. "K-beauty, which has gained recognition in global markets, has been combined with the price competitiveness of discount retailers," an official in the beauty industry said. "K-beauty's presence is growing from department stores such as France's Galeries Lafayette to Sephora and Ulta Beauty in the U.S., and now to discount retail channels."
