South Korean e-commerce companies are expanding their beauty categories as a new growth engine, leveraging existing memberships and logistics infrastructure. Platforms including Coupang, Kurly and Musinsa are widening their business scope, with early movers bringing in luxury and indie brands and later entrants strengthening foundations through offline touchpoints. Musinsa, Zigzag and Ably are also pushing beauty expansion. Companies are also increasing private-label launches, while competition is expected to intensify.

Coupang has expanded its gift card sales channels from online to offline, starting physical gift card sales at Seven Eleven stores on March 31. The move comes as user metrics that fell after a personal data leak incident show signs of recovery in the first quarter. The company is seen as targeting non-members and dormant users, while also citing demand from corporate customers buying gift cards in bulk for welfare and marketing uses.