South Korea's top health and beauty stores declined in 2020

This halted a steady growth amidst a shift towards online channels.

The number of stores owned by South Korea’s three major health and beauty chains declined for the first time by 31 to 1,484 as of end-December 2020, Yonhap reported based on data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

The three chains are Olive Young, lalavla, and LOHB's. CJ Group runs Olive Young, with Lotte Shopping and GS Retail operating LOHB's and lalavla, respectively.

Lotte Shopping said it estimated the number of health and beauty shops in the country based on data posted on their websites and business reports. In a recent regulatory filing, the company said the number of LOHB's outlets shrank to 101 in 2020 from 129 a year earlier.

GS Retail recently disclosed that the number of lalavla stores fell to 124 from 140 over the cited period. Lotte Shopping did not comment on the number of Olive Young shops.

The number of such local shops has steadily grown to 1,515 in 2019 from 1,488 in 2018, 1,358 in 2017, and 1,014 in 2016. However, health and beauty chains were hit hard by the pandemic in 2020, which prompted consumers to buy products online and caused those brands to downsize in a turnaround from their cutthroat competition to open more outlets.

Domestic and foreign cosmetics makers have also been increasingly joining hands with local portals to directly sell their products online instead of resorting to beauty stores, according to industry watchers.