Top picks by GlowPick for 2020: South Korean brands and trends to watch out for

What road will South Korean brands take in 2020? We interviewed Junesik Kong, CEO of Glowdayz Inc., a company that runs the popular K-beauty review app GlowPick, about his predictions for up-and-coming trends and brands.

In South Korea, 2019 was marked by the strikingly rapid progress of new small-to-medium brands. One factor behind this has been H&B stores such as Olive Young and the cosmetics specialty store Chicor actively fostering and promoting new small-to-medium brands in the past several years. Junesik Kong of Glowdayz Inc., a company that has been keeping an eye on these trends in South Korea, says that 2020 is going to be a year where “many brands will fiercely compete against each other”.

Kong explains that “in South Korea, we have an environment where there are a number of powerful OEM companies and if you have an idea and 20,000 dollars in funds, you can almost immediately launch your own cosmetics brand. On the other hand, because brands can be started so easily, the sheer number of brands is increasing remarkably. Currently, there are around 30,000 beauty brands jostling within the South Korean market.”

Within this intense competition, each brand is trying out new ideas for ingredients and concepts and applying every trick in the book to try and start a new trend.

South Korean consumers are particularly concerned about the ingredients of cosmetics, and ingredients that were just recently all the rage can quickly end up losing their prestige. A case study to watch is skincare products with lactic acid bacteria (such as probiotics) that are currently on the rise in the South Korean market. GlowPick predicts that this spring will see an even larger number of these lineups appearing. According to Kong, however, whether lactic acid bacteria will become a trend and someday grow into a category all of itself is unclear in the current situation.

Will vegan cosmetics also trend in South Korea?

In terms of new concepts, Kong thinks that in 2020 we’ll see an increase in brands advocating veganism and organic products. Vegan cosmetics are a noteworthy trend in the global market, and now there is a sudden competition to catch this new demand in South Korea.

Kong details the situation: “While we have an increase in brands raising the vegan flag, we’re also seeing efforts by brands to actually attain vegan certification. There are institutions issuing these types of certificates not only in South Korea but also in countries such as China and France, however, the strictest standards are found in the UK. So brands that are serious about growing are shifting to production systems that coincide with British standards.”

He says that in 2020 we’ll likely see brands fork off into one of two directions: those that emphasize veganism on the marketing level; and those that move to attain internationally-reputable certifications and develop products with a philosophy.

On the other hand, vegan products, which have a more limited usable array of ingredients, don’t currently excel beyond existing products in areas such as the feeling of a product when using it or fragrance. Despite many expecting veganism to become a trend, there are still many hurdles for it to clear.

However, there are some new vegan brands that have struck deals to sell their wares in Chicor; including Melixir , which was founded by an ex-employee of MEMEBOX. In South Korea, vegan-by-choice lifestyles are also gaining attention not just in cosmetics but in food too, and Kong says that he’s on the lookout for when the vegan wave will hit the beauty industry.

Among the intense competition, which brands are worth watching in 2020?

So what kind of new small-to-medium brands are likely to achieve success? Kong says his brands to watch are hince and FEMMUE.

What these two have in common is that their abilities to strongly circulate their brand images have both started from the point of marketing. As mentioned above, the competition for small-to-medium-sized brands is heating up in South Korea, and many brands are tending to hastily roll out marketing campaigns to aim for quick profits, leading them down a path where their value is quickly diminished. However, both hince and FEMMUE have unwaveringly maintained brand images backed up by well-thought-out philosophies and original styles, and this has led to a large and favorable response from consumers.

In South Korea, H&B stores play a supporting role for small-to-medium brands as distribution channels that help accelerate their sales. For instance, brands that join the distribution network of Olive Young, a particularly major H&B store, will see their total sales increase. However, H&B stores have the power to push brands to discount their prices. As a result of this, the brands’ images get undeniably damaged.

However, brands such as hince, having understood this system, haven’t rushed to include their products into this distribution network so readily. They’ve also concentrated on advertising the original values of their brand and this has led to greater support from consumers.

These new types of brands have, according to Kong, “originally avoided being labeled as ‘K-beauty’ and instead have put effort into brushing up their brand concepts so that they could perform on the global market. Doing this takes time and requires proper investing. Even with as many brands as there are, the number able to pull this off is limited.” Hopes hinge on the appearance of more of these new types of brands that can compete by going beyond the traditional perceptions and structures of South Korean brands.

Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Jonggi HA