South Korea’s leading e-commerce platform Coupang is making a bold push into the luxury beauty and fashion sectors. By diversifying its offerings from mid-range consumer goods to high-end brands, Coupang aims to enhance profitability and extend its dominance in online shopping.
Coupang launched R.LUX, a dedicated luxury beauty platform, in October 2024 as part of its strategy to expand vertical services. This includes platforms like Farfetch for global luxury goods, C. Avenue for premium fashion, and C. Street for streetwear. Through R.LUX, Coupang has entered a heated competition with platforms like Olive Young’s Luxe Edit and Kurly’s Beauty Kurly to capture a share of the high-end cosmetics market.
Industry sources said Tuesday that high-end brands including Jo Malone and Lancôme are expected to join R.LUX by the end of 2024, adding to its existing lineup of 23 brands, including Estée Lauder, Sulwhasoo, and Hera. This expansion will increase the number of brands on the platform to 30 by year-end and potentially up to 50 to 70 by 2025, matching the range offered by major department stores such as Lotte, Shinsegae, and Hyundai.
Consumers could previously purchase these luxury products on Coupang via international shipping only, which often took about a week. With official partnerships, these brands will now be available via Coupang’s Rocket Delivery, enabling next-day shipping without customs delays.
Despite Coupang’s dominance in general consumer goods, the luxury beauty market has been largely controlled by department stores and offline powerhouses like Olive Young. Coupang’s push into this space reflects its confidence in the sector‘s growth potential and the absence of a clear market leader. While Olive Young has a stronghold in offline beauty sales, it has yet to establish a similar dominance in luxury beauty. The willingness of luxury brands, traditionally hesitant to join online platforms, to expand their digital presence further underscores this opportunity.
Luxury beauty brands on Naver’s Brand Store, for example, increased from 61 in 2021 to over 87 this year, while Kakao’s dedicated luxury platform LuX, launched in June 2023, attracted 81 fashion and beauty brands within a year. For its part, Coupang aims to leverage its vast user base to attract more brands and create a virtuous cycle of consumer engagement and platform growth.
Coupang’s ambitions extend beyond beauty. Its premium fashion platform C. Avenue features over 100 department-store brands such as Lacoste, Hazzys, and Couronne. Meanwhile, C. Street caters to younger consumers with popular social media-driven fashion brands. Coupang is also integrating global luxury fashion into its portfolio through Farfetch, a platform it acquired in 2023 for 650 billion won ($459 million). Despite undergoing restructuring to minimize losses, Farfetch continues to offer high-end brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Versace.
An industry insider noted that Coupang’s fast delivery capabilities, combined with its expansion into luxury goods, could significantly boost the online market. For Coupang and other e-commerce players, “luxury beauty” represents untapped potential, particularly as they aim to cater to both younger consumers in their 20s and 30s and more affluent shoppers in their 30s to 50s. With its aggressive strategy, Coupang is positioning itself as a formidable competitor to department stores and other premium platforms.
By Park Hong-ju and Minu Kim
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