Industry news

1、Sephora, the LVMH-owned beauty retailer, said it will exit the South Korean market, closing its offline and online stores as well as its mobile app store serving the country as of May 6th. Sephora, which launched in South Korea in 2019, currently operates five brick-and-mortar stores in the country and has closed two stores in recent years. Sephora's move to exit South Korea echoes that of Western beauty giant Boots in 2020, which opened its first branded store in the country in 2017 but closed all 33 of its branded stores in the country a few years later due to low profitability. The South Korean beauty market is dominated by retailer CJOlive Young, which operates more than 1.300 stores across the country.

2、Positioning the UK market as a key growth driver, the Shiseido Group has ambitious and comprehensive plans to double its UK sales by 2025 and leapfrog into the top five largest beauty companies in the region. Charles de Montalivet, Shiseido's Group Managing Director for the UK, said that retail sales for Shiseido's UK business will grow by almost 21% in 2023, with skincare sales up 55%, cosmetics sales up over 10% and fragrance sales up 11%. Shiseido sells 11 brands in the UK, dominated by the Nars, Drunk Elephant and Shiseido brands.

3、Amazon has made its first foray into over-the-counter retail with the acquisition of Italian pharmacy PulkerFarma, which will reportedly focus on beauty and personal care retail, with the goal of making the Milan space a flagship store, promoting the Amazon brand among Italian consumers to take advantage of its Prime service, and potentially introducing beauty brands with exclusivity in the pharmacy and drugstore channels to its marketplace.