According to the company, the goal is to increase wellness-related sales by more than 10% from 2023.
In South Korea, wellness comprises three key components of “well-being, happiness and fitness”, referring to a state of harmonious mental, physical and social health.
As such, the sector encompasses “everything from health foods and personal care to lifestyle products and services that affect daily happiness”.
“As consumer interest in healthcare has steadily increased in recent years, the number of wellness-related products sold by Olive Young has more than doubled, as compared to before COVID-19.
“In order to actively respond to such market changes, Olive Young plans to expand its wellness category and support customised health management for customers, while discovering and nurturing promising domestic small and medium-sized brands in the mid- to long-term,” the firm said.
Housed within Olive Young’s mobile app, Health+ will expand the firm’s existing selection of wellness products, such as health foods and dietary supplements.
These are categorised into five main areas, namely W Care (women’s health products), Inner Beauty (ingestible beauty-from-within products), Line Care (anti-ageing products for fine lines and wrinkles), Immunity, and Sleep.
As a point of differentiation, Health+ includes functions such as customised product recommendation and enhanced search tool.
Under the “finding health functional foods that suit me” function, users can search for products optimised for their individual characteristics like gender, age (ranging from infants to seniors), and health status, such as pregnant women.
In addition, users can also perform detailed searches based on target area, such as vision, skin, muscle and digestive system, as well as product effects, such as antioxidant, immune support, and body fat management.
The “Today’s Special Price” and “Today’s Health Ranking” features enable consumers to browse and purchase select products at promotional prices. At the same time, they can check out popular brands and products via category.
“Olive Young has introduced a variety of SME brands and products to local consumers by launching major categories such as W Care in 2022 and Inner Beauty in 2023.
“Leveraging the company’s unrivalled product curation know-how and trend-discovery capabilities, Health+ will grow into a platform that epitomises ‘healthy life’.”
Positive potential
Olive Young is keeping its eye on the trend of Koreans in their 20s and 30s who are increasingly interested in the wellness category and actively managing their health.
Based on Global Wellness Institute data, the global wellness market as of 2022 is worth USD5.6tn, with South Korea estimated to be the nineth largest market in the world (USD113bn), after the US, China, Germany, Japan, the UK, France, India, and Canada.
“Although Korea’s market size is smaller than Canada’s, which has similar income levels and population as Korea, there is ample growth potential.
“According to the Korea Health Functional Foods Association, the size of the domestic health functional food market reached KRW6.2tn (USD4.6bn) last year, up about 27% from 2019. This is the basis for experts’ positive assessment for the growth potential of Korea’s wellness market,” Olive Young stated.
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