Korean Beauty Retailer Olive Young Pilots Multilingual Shopper Service
CJ Olive Young, a South Korean cosmetics, health and beauty retailer, is piloting a multilingual shopping service to assist global customers in-store.
The “Olive Young Personal Shopper” service will be offered on a trial basis at the retailer’s flagship store in Seoul’s Gangnam area until March 31.
According to a media release, Olive Young said Gangnam is a “mecca for beauty shopping” and frequently visited by international shoppers. The Gangnam Town store is also surrounded by numerous dermatology and plastic surgery clinics.
The retailer said it created the Personal Shopper service in response to many “detailed and frequent inquiries from foreign customers about product efficacy and functionality across categories, ranging from skincare to makeup and wellness products,” per the release.
As part of the free service, specialized, bilingual staff members are available to provide personalized assistance on all things K-beauty, a trend/market that has continued to rise in popularity globally over the last decade. The service is offered in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese.
Customers can book a 30-minute session in advance through travel and leisure platform Klook.
During the sessions, personal shoppers will guide customers through key displays and pop-up sections within the store. They also recommend popular products in categories of interest identified through a pre-service survey, while providing tailored product suggestions and consultations based on the customer's skin type.
Additionally, customers who use the service will receive a welcome kit containing samples of popular brand products in a pouch. Those who purchase products worth over 500,000 KRW will receive a VIP gift, while purchases exceeding 1,000,000 KRW are eligible for free hotel delivery.
Olive Young said it plans to monitor customer feedback on the Personal Shopper service to evaluate the possibility of expanding it to other large stores frequently visited by global customers.
"We hope that foreign tourists visiting Korea will be able to experience the power of K-beauty products through Olive Young," an Olive Young representative said in the release. "To achieve this, we are actively introducing various initiatives, including the free Personal Shopper service."
