How CJ Olive Young turned Busan into a K-beauty destination

Nampo Town store, third-largest nationwide, opens in building vacant for 6 years

Foreign shoppers account for 72% of sales; warehouse-style pharmacy springs up nearby

Ice cream, local flair at Millak the Market store in Gwangalli

22 of 78 Busan stores now managed as global tourism outlets

Part of 123.8 billion won investment in regions outside Greater Seoul

The ground floor of CJ Olive Young Nampo Town, visited Friday morning. Popular products — from beauty items to food and health supplements — are stacked waist-high in bulk displays. The "K-Favorite" corner was designed with cruise tourists in mind, reorganizing the store layout and product arrangement to help shoppers complete their purchases quickly. Store Manager Lee Hye-min said the specialized floor concept is a first for any CJ Olive Young location nationwide. [Kim Jin]

"I come to Busan often, but this is my first time in Nampo-dong. I stopped by because I heard a big new CJ Olive Young had opened."

The speaker was Cheon, 42, a resident of Ulsan browsing a towering display of ingestible beauty products on the ground floor of CJ Olive Young Nampo Town in Jung-gu, Busan, on Friday morning. "Unlike a regular CJ Olive Young, there's a lot of food here — it's surprising," she said. "I'd heard foreign tourists were increasing in Busan, and it seems like a great shopping space has come along with them."

CJ Olive Young has designated Busan as its new frontline for K-beauty. The company has opened both a flagship-scale megastore — the third-largest in the country — and a locally themed specialty store in the city in quick succession. The moves are part of a 123.8 billion won ($92.5 million) investment plan targeting regions outside Greater Seoul that the company announced this year.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Busan reached 2.93 million in 2024 and 3.64 million in 2025, and is forecast to surpass 4 million this year. In the first half of this year, foreign tourist arrivals in Busan rose 43.9 percent year on year. Over the same period, the number of foreign customers visiting CJ Olive Young stores in Busan climbed 74.2 percent, while sales to foreign customers surged 82.3 percent.

As of August, CJ Olive Young operates 78 stores in Busan, with strategies tailored to each district — major tourist attractions, cruise port areas and neighborhoods popular with foreign visitors. Twenty-two of those stores are managed as global tourism outlets, covering not only designated tourist zones such as Haeundae-gu, Jung-gu and Dong-gu, but also Busanjin-gu, Suyeong-gu and parts of Gijang-gun, where foreign foot traffic has been growing.

CJ Olive Young Nampo Town spans four floors and about 2,970 square meters, making it the third-largest CJ Olive Young store in the country, behind CJ Olive Young N Seongsu and Central Myeongdong Town. Pictured is an exterior view of Nampo Town. [CJ Olive Young]

A foreign customer tries out a "Skin Scan for Face" skin-analysis device at CJ Olive Young Nampo Town on Friday morning. The store has six Skin Scan units in total, covering skin, scalp and color diagnostics. [Kim Jin]

From six years vacant to K-beauty megastore: 'One-stop shopping like Myeongdong'

CJ Olive Young Nampo Town occupies four floors and about 2,970 square meters in Nampo-dong, one of Busan's three major tourist shopping districts alongside Haeundae and Seomyeon. It is the third-largest CJ Olive Young store nationwide, after CJ Olive Young N Seongsu and Central Myeongdong Town. The new store is an expanded relocation of the Gwangbok Town store — formerly known as the Gwangbok flagship — which opened in 2016 as the company's first flagship outside Greater Seoul. Its primary customers include cruise tourists arriving through Busan Port and Yeongdo Port. From the store's opening on Aug. 28 through Wednesday, foreign shoppers accounted for 72 percent of total sales.

The store was designed to make shopping easier for foreign tourists. "Cruise customers need to find and buy popular products quickly," Store Manager Lee Hye-min said. "With that in mind, we introduced a specialized floor called 'K-Favorite' — a first for any CJ Olive Young store nationwide." The section piles products high in a warehouse-club style, spanning beauty, food and health supplements. Cheon, who was browsing the floor, said the setup reminded her of Japan's Don Quijote or Myeongdong — "specialized for one-stop shopping."

The store also offers a range of hands-on services. It has six Skin Scan devices in total: three for skin diagnosis, two for color analysis and one for scalp analysis. On the fourth floor, customers can receive personalized beauty recommendations after a "Skin Scan for Face" consultation. Across from it, an "Advanced Derma" zone offers consultations focused on pharmaceutical-brand products. A Japanese tourist named Mao, encountered on the fourth floor, held up an acne product from Dong-A Pharmaceutical. "I picked it out as a gift for my younger sister, who struggles with acne-prone skin," she said.

The surrounding neighborhood has also been transformed. The building that now houses Nampo Town sat vacant for six years after the local commercial district declined during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, a warehouse-style pharmacy has opened next door, street food stalls selling tanghuru and other snacks have multiplied, and the area has taken on a feel reminiscent of Seoul's Myeongdong. A CJ Olive Young official said the company aims to "extend the competitiveness of Central Myeongdong Town to regions outside Greater Seoul and establish Busan as a representative K-beauty megastore destination."

The exterior of CJ Olive Young Nampo Town on Friday. Foreign shoppers who have finished their purchases gather around benches in front of the store, while a row of street food stalls lines the opposite side of the street. A warehouse-style pharmacy recently opened right next door to Nampo Town. [Kim Jin]

CJ Olive Young Millak the Market is a design-themed specialty store inside a mixed-use cultural complex. Built around the concept of the "Olive Young Ship" docked at Millak Port, the store features posters evoking a fresh-catch seafood market. [CJ Olive Young]

'Only grade-A goods aboard': the 'Olive Young Ship' docked at Millak Port

CJ Olive Young Millak the Market, which opened Aug. 30, is a design-themed specialty store found nowhere else. It opened inside a mixed-use cultural complex in Millak-dong with views of Gwangandaegyo Bridge and the open sea. Built around the concept of the "Olive Young Ship" moored at the port, the store is plastered with posters in Busan dialect evoking a fresh-catch seafood market — slogans along the lines of "Spread it on, pick it out, take it home" and "Only grade-A goods come aboard." Product boxes are stacked as if freshly unloaded from a vessel, and fishing nets and parasols serve as decorative props throughout.

"Millak-dong is a place where people come to relax in a local, laid-back atmosphere," Store Manager Yun In-hye said. "It's a district where customers tend to come more at night than during the day, and more on weekends than weekdays. When CJ Olive Young opened here, we wanted to make it a place people would visit any time, any day — so we went with a fun concept."

Millak-dong has recently emerged as a fast-rising tourist destination. Foreign tourists account for about half of the Millak the Market store's sales. Julie, an Australian tourist encountered in the store, said she had visited a CJ Olive Young in Myeongdong before. "This place has a very different atmosphere," she said. "It has a lot of Korean touches — it's fun."

The store is the first CJ Olive Young location nationwide to sell ice cream. Reflecting the neighborhood's character as a late-night leisure destination, the store has also expanded its selection of snack foods and hangover remedies. It is also the only one of three CJ Olive Young stores in the Gwangalli area to carry a Skin Scan color-fit diagnostic device, strengthening its color cosmetics offering.

Inside CJ Olive Young Millak the Market, fishing nets, parasols and product boxes stacked as if freshly unloaded from a ship set the nautical mood. A freezer bearing the name "Olive Young Ship" stocks ice cream and cups of ice. The store is the first CJ Olive Young location to sell ice cream. [Kim Jin]

123.8 billion won outside Greater Seoul: 'Combining local commerce and data'

CJ Olive Young announced a large-scale investment plan for regions outside Greater Seoul in April. The plan calls for 43 of the 78 large stores — those with a floor area of at least 330 square meters — that the company opens or renovates this year to be located outside the capital region. Globally themed specialty stores will be built in high-tourism areas such as Busan, Jeju and Gyeongju, while large anchor stores will be established across the Gyeongsang, Jeolla and Chungcheong regions.

"We will continue our offline innovation by precisely combining the unique appeal of each local commercial district with customer data — not just in Busan, but across all regions outside Greater Seoul," a CJ Olive Young official said. "We will work to make CJ Olive Young a shopping landmark that represents K-tourism."

soho0902@heraldcorp.com