Today Korea — Kim Chaeyoon, Reporter | Budget-friendly cosmetics have quietly become the beauty industry’s new disruptor. Convenience stores, prized for their accessibility, are expanding ultra-low-price beauty lines and rolling out beauty-focused store formats to capture growing demand.
On the 3rd, Today Korea’s reporting found that demand for reasonably priced cosmetics keeps rising as more shoppers hunt for value.
Large domestic supermarkets, for example, began beefing up ultra-low-price cosmetics last year, and sales in that category have been trending upward.
In April last year, E-Mart teamed up with LG Household & Health Care to launch the exclusive brand Glow:Up by Beyond. The company’s ultra-low-price cosmetics sales from November through January reportedly rose about 24% compared with the previous three months.
Lotte Mart’s Value-for-Money Beauty Zone, introduced last year, expanded its product range and saw September–October sales more than triple compared with the initial July–August period. Sales in November–December also increased roughly 70% from the prior two months.
Riding that momentum, convenience store chains have accelerated efforts to strengthen ultra-low-price cosmetics this year after stepping up activity last year.
CU, operated by BGF Retail, has singled out cosmetics as a new growth category and plans to add more than 1,000 beauty-focused convenience stores this year.
CU’s year-over-year cosmetics sales growth was 28.3% in 2023, 16.5% in 2024, and 21.4% for January–November 2025. About 70% of those sales came from shoppers in their teens and twenties.
The company has also boosted services, using AI to measure personal color and installing Makeup Palette Maker kiosks.
\”We aim to offer special prices so consumers can shop conveniently,\” a BGF Retail spokesperson told this paper by phone. \”Even at full price, customers are saying, ‘This price is worth trying.’\”
GS25 has also strengthened its ultra-low-price cosmetics lineup through partnerships with other brands.
In January, the company teamed up with color cosmetics brand Son & Park to launch the value-priced, fixed-price lineup Son & Park HATTY Season 2. Compared with Season 1 released last year, Season 2 expands the eye-makeup range.
GS25 also collaborated with makeup tools brand Scone to release a variety of affordable makeup essentials, including eyeliners and eyeshadows.
Go Woong, MD of GS Retail’s Life & Living team, said, \”Through strategic partnerships, we’ve seen outstanding results across non-food category sales, customer traffic, and brand awareness.\”
Most Commented