Pharmacy chains abroad build Korean skin care ranges in a $36.9 billion dermocosmetics market

"In Korea, pharmacies are mostly small independent stores centered on filling prescriptions and selling over-the-counter drugs, and cosmetics account for only a tiny share of their sales," an official at Goodai Global said. Overseas, the official said, pharmacies "operate as large retail chains that carry skin care, sun care, personal care and household goods in addition to medicines" ^[6]. Korean brands already reach shoppers through Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Walmart and Target, and they are now moving into a store format they have little of at home ^[1].

The money behind the move is dermocosmetics. Euromonitor puts the global market at $36.94 billion last year, against $20.82 billion in 2020 ^[14]. That is $16.1 billion of added sales ^[15], or about 12% a year compounded over five years ^[16]. The chains are going after Korean brands that sell on ingredients such as ceramides, centella asiatica and PDRN ^[20]. The report does not include sales figures for any pharmacy listing, or the share of the market Korean brands hold.

So store and product counts are the only measure of scale. Beauty of Joseon's Drogasil footprint is about 30% of the chain ^[17], with roughly 1,400 stores still to fill ^[18]. The rollout can go a few ways. Drogasil could carry the brand across the whole chain, and pharmacy would become a core channel in Brazil. The Korean range could instead settle into a category the retailer curates and caps. Dr. Max lists about 500 Korean products in the Czech Republic, about 500 in Slovakia and about 100 in Italy ^[9][10]. That is about 1,100 listings across three countries ^[19]. Or the listing could matter mainly as an endorsement. "Because pharmacies abroad are strongly seen as places that sell products vetted by pharmacists, entering them means more than adding a sales channel," the Goodai Global official said ^[7].

I think the second outcome fits most of what the reporting shows. Dr. Max and chains in Sweden and the UAE present K-beauty to shoppers as a category of its own ^[13][11]. If that category has a fixed number of slots, one Korean brand's growth comes partly out of another's. The counter-case is Beauty of Joseon itself, which went into Drogasil and PSP Pharma as a named brand, with the Georgian range led by its Relief Sun sunscreen ^[4][3]. If Drogasil takes the brand into most of its 2,000 stores, the category view is wrong, at least for Beauty of Joseon ^[4].