“In addition to K-beauty, many categories such as wellness and fashion have the potential to succeed in the United States. How to build reputation and how to shorten that period should be benchmarked from the success of K-beauty.”
Hannah Shin, Head of Amazon Global Selling Korea, said this while giving a lecture on the theme ‘From Korea to the World: How K-Beauty Wins on Amazon‘ at the ’2025 ChosunBiz Consumer and Retail Forum’ held on the 11th at the Grand Ballroom of the Westin Josun Hotel in Seoul.
Shin noted several factors for the success of K-beauty in the United States, including ▲ understanding of customers (Customer Obsession) ▲ product capability based on manufacturing (Product Innovation) ▲ marketing that creates trends (Communication) ▲ rapid operation and execution (Agile & Flexibility).
Shin stated, “Many Korean brands are employing a strategy of launching localized products,” pointing to the global beauty brands “Tirtir” and “VT Cosmetics” as representative examples.
She noted, “Tirtir launched only four colors of cushion foundation in Korea, but in the United States, with its diverse ethnicities, it released palettes with over 30 colors and achieved success in the makeup sector in a short time,” adding that “VT Cosmetics capitalized on the popularity of character collaboration products in Japan.”
Additionally, Shin said, “K-beauty generates significant traffic offline and then transfers that traffic to Amazon,” explaining that “afterward, it captures customers with ads on Amazon so they can actually purchase those products.”
She continued, “Product innovation leads to product leadership and the creation of global demand, subsequently building the capital to create new products,” stating that “in the process, a fandom for the brand was established. The success of K-beauty is just beginning.”
Shin remarked, “This is a timing when other fields can also leap forward as global K-brands,” adding that “right now, through Amazon, which has over 200 million paid Prime members across 23 marketplaces worldwide, we can lead brands.”
According to Tinuiti, it holds a 39.5% share of total sales in U.S. e-commerce retail. This is larger than the combined share (31.0%) of the top 14 e-commerce retailers in the U.S., excluding Amazon.
Shin said, “Amazon has built an all-in-one infrastructure that allows brands and sellers to focus solely on growing their brands by providing an integrated solution for logistics data operations,” describing it as “one of the best platforms to expand brands globally.”