Small K-beauty brands dominate Musinsa's global store sales

Beauty transactions on Musinsa's global store have continued to surge, with nine of the top 10 brands by sales volume coming from small and midsize domestic companies.

According to Musinsa, beauty transactions on the global store from Jan. 1 through Sept. 15 this year rose 5.3 times — or 434.6 percent — compared with the same period last year. The global store operates across 13 markets including the United States, Japan and Southeast Asia, and currently carries about 500 beauty brands as of September, with some 12,000 products available for sale.

An analysis of the top 100 brands by transaction volume found that 88 of the 96 brands outside Musinsa's four in-house labels — Oddtype, Witchie, EGU First Trophy and Musinsa Standard Beauty — were small and midsize brands.

The list features a wide range of domestic smaller brands, including hair device brands Bodana and JMW, men's care brands Dashu and Forvuty, makeup tool brand Picasso, makeup brand Jung Saem Mool, skincare brands B.plain and S-Nature, haircare brand Chahong, and fragrance brand Plrbuwa.

Musinsa has been building out its global store's beauty category in earnest since 2024, deepening partnerships with small and midsize domestic beauty brands. The platform also provides the operational infrastructure brands need to enter overseas markets — including international delivery, customer service, automatic translation of product reviews, domestic product code integration and global fulfillment. Brands can link their existing domestic product codes and ship inventory to a Musinsa logistics center, after which Musinsa handles the rest.

"As global demand for K-beauty expands, a growing number of small and midsize domestic beauty brands are connecting with overseas customers through the global store and generating real sales results," a Musinsa official said. "We will continue to expand our support so that competitive domestic small and midsize brands can grow in overseas markets."