'We don't want products from the U.S. That's the whole point': Olive Young faces American consumer backlash over online mall policy
The U.S. mall is still a work in progress, says the Korean retailer, but local K-beauty consumers are irate over the product selection, higher prices and reset membership points.
People line up outside Olive Young's Pasadena flagship store on May 29.OLIVE YOUNG
After opening its first U.S. store and launching a U.S.-only online mall in late May, Olive Young restricted its American customers from the global website they had used for years — and ran into a backlash from the very shoppers who had championed the Korean beauty retailer in the first place.
For those customers, the global site was the whole appeal. They had spent years ordering Korean cosmetics through it, willing to pay for shipping and tariffs to get products fresh from the source, often in packaging they couldn't read.
When the U.S. site went live, the company funneled them onto the new U.S.-only mall and cut off their access to the global one. Many logged in to find a diminished store: fewer brands, fewer products, higher prices and the membership status and rewards they had built up reset or wiped out.
Olive Young asked customers to see the U.S. mall as a work in progress. "The online store is still in its early stages and is not a finished product," the company said in a written response for Korea JoongAng Daily. "We will continue to refine our benefits and services while watching customer feedback, and we will keep expanding the number of brands and products."
The gap in selection is stark. The U.S. site lists 1,424 skincare products compared to the global site's 4,078, and 438 makeup products compared to the global site's 2,097.
On the global site, customers reached the top membership tier by spending $300; the new structure raised that threshold, and shoppers reported that reward codes and discount coupons, some worth up to 80 percent off, were voided in the transition.
Another objection voiced in comments on the company's U.S. Instagram account went deeper than points and pricing.
Because the U.S. mall must follow Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules, popular Korean items such as certain sunscreens disappeared, and the selection shrank. To these customers, that defeated the purpose.
An Instagram post uploaded by Olive Young U.S. on June 4 as a response to customersSCREEN CAPTURE
"The reason we shopped on the global site was because we knew we were getting authentic Korean products without formulations tailored for the U.S.," one wrote, asking the company to let shoppers use both sites.
"We don't want products from the U.S. That's the whole point," said another. A third was blunter: "We don't need another Sephora. We want the 1+1's, special collabs, decent pricing, and access to what's popular in Korea."
Several said they would rather pay tariffs and wait for shipping from Korea, and some had begun browsing Japanese retailers.
"The online store is still in its early stages and is not a finished product," Olive Young said in a written response for Korea JoongAng Daily. "We will continue to refine our benefits and services while watching customer feedback, and we will keep expanding the number of brands and products."
On membership, the company said its U.S. loyalty program, O.Y Members, runs three tiers — Friend on signup, Green above $350 and Gold above $600. To mark its U.S. entry, every member's grade will be held without downgrade for a full year, through June 30, 2027, and purchase history and points from the old global mall are being carried over to the new tiers with customers' consent.
Olive Young's first North American distribution center in Bloomington, California.OLIVE YOUNG
All members receive $10 in birthday points, and a promotional "O.Y Members' Week" begins in July, with additional points and, later in the year, product and shipping coupons.
On the missing sunscreens, an Olive Young official acknowledged the trade-off while defending the products.
"All products sold in the United States comply with FDA and other local regulations, so some products may differ in ingredients or formula," the official said. "But Korean sun care still performs better than other global brands in areas like how it spreads on the skin, and Korean manufacturers are innovating their formulas to meet U.S. standards, so we expect to keep releasing upgraded products."
The company also pointed to a regulatory change. Bemotrizinol, a sunscreen ingredient long unapproved in the United States, was added to the FDA's over-the-counter list on Tuesday. The change would allow Korean sunscreens to enter the US market with more of their original formulations intact.
The company also said its Pasadena store is performing well ahead of plan, with a purchase conversion rate approaching 71 percent among visitors, and customers arriving from across Los Angeles, as well as other states and abroad. A second store, in Century City, is due to open this month, with a target of five California locations by the first half of next year.
