Masks off, lipstick on, revenue up, division merchants argue

A shopper tries on makeup at a department retailer in central Seoul on Sunday, a day forward of the government’s planned lifting of a necessary mask mandate. [YONHAP]

  
With the mask mandate eventually finished — on Monday, after 840 days — the attractiveness small business is hopeful that cosmetics sales will boom.    
 
Currently, indicators reveal the much less the constraints, the a lot more make-up is remaining worn.  
 
At Lotte Department Retail store, income of coloration cosmetic items elevated 25 % from Jan. 2 to 20 when compared to the identical period of time last 12 months.
 
Revenues from Jan. 23 to 26, ideal right after the Lunar New Calendar year holiday break, surged a lot more than 40 per cent on year. All through this time period, gross sales of lipstick rose 50 p.c, lip gloss and tint 80 % and blush, contour shades and highlighter 70 p.c.
 
“Color cosmetic solutions for lips and cheeks are exploding in popularity,” a spokesperson of Lotte Office Store mentioned.
 
At Shinsegae Department Shop and Hyundai Division Keep, cosmetics profits improved by 20 to 24 p.c from early- to mid-January in comparison to the exact period of time past yr. Similarly, the boost was obvious in colour beauty solutions.
 
Income at street shops, or large cosmetics shops catering to tourists and other additional transient clientele, online procuring channels and tv-primarily based household buying are also booming.
 
At Olive Younger, colour cosmetic merchandise sale jumped 55 per cent 12 months-on-12 months from May to December final year, when Korea step by step lifted its outdoor mask mandate.
 
“As the indoor mask mandate has been fully lifted, shoppers can freely exam all colour beauty solutions inside of the merchants, like lipsticks,” a spokesperson for Olive Young claimed Monday.
 
At Lotte On’s On and the Beauty, an on the net store for high quality natural beauty merchandise, beauty merchandise profits jumped 50 % when the Jan. 2-to-15 is compared to the similar time period a year previously. During the Lunar New Calendar year holiday seasons, Lotte Homeshopping orders of magnificence-relevant products hit about 4 billion won ($3.25 million). Of that, orders for cosmetic goods greater by 20 per cent in comparison to Chuseok, or the fall harvest pageant, which is Korea’s most important getaway alongside with Lunar New Year.
 
Department outlets and attractiveness shops are scrambling to host promotional campaigns to capitalize on the latest governing administration pointers on indoor masking rule forward of Valentine’s Day.
 
Lotte Division Keep is getting ready “Blooming Magnificence Week” scheduled for Feb. 3 to 12, exactly where 37 cosmetics makes, together with Amore Pacific, Shiseido, Mac and Bobby Brown, are participating.
 
Shisegae Office Retail outlet will keep “Shinsegae Cosmetics Fair” from Feb. 10 to Feb. 19, in which some 70 cosmetics brands, like Estee Lauder, Sulhwasoo and Yves Saint Laurent, will take part and organize events like discount coupon codes giveaways.
 
Not absolutely everyone is pleased about the lifting of the mask mandate. Some observed mask-sporting as a at ease shield from revealing their faces — even making the buzzword “magikkun” — a portmanteau that combines the English word “mask” and “sagikkun,” the Korean word for fraud.
 
And some skeptics query regardless of whether a cosmetics growth will outcome.  
 
“As the mask mandate was lifted in phases because May well last yr, it is believed that the general public demand from customers restoration has by now passed,” Park Eun-kyeong, an analyst at Samsung Securities, explained. “There will be a restrict to recovering the functionality of the cosmetics field as individuals devote lengthy sufficient several hours with out masks even now.”
 
“It is tricky for the domestic cosmetics industry to get well swiftly only with the nearby desire,” a cosmetics manufacturer government equally pointed out. “Rather it will revive only when the vacation field normalizes and international travelers return, or abroad demand from customers, these types of as from China, recovers.”
 
Euromonitor tasks Korea’s attractiveness and personal treatment market place to arrive at 16.74 trillion won in 2023, a rise of around 2.8 % from final year. This is continue to considerably less than previous year’s 3.3 per cent development.

BY YOO JI-YOEN, Search engine marketing JI-EUN [[email protected][