Shinsegae Opens Hyper Ground Pop-Up to Crack U.S. K-Beauty Market
Shinsegae opens Hyper Ground, a three-month pop-up at Hudson Yards with 30-plus mostly undistributed K-beauty brands, aiming to become a U.S. retail player.
Updated
The takeaway
- Shinsegae opens the 2,000-square-foot Hyper Ground pop-up at The Shops at Hudson Yards on Friday, running seven days a week through December with more than 30 K-beauty brands.
- NielsenIQ data shows 29 percent of U.S. households buy K-beauty products each year, up from 23 percent a year ago and 19.7 percent two years ago.
- Shinsegae generated roughly 7.4 trillion South Korean won, or $5.3 billion, in revenue in 2025 and hosted its first Hyper Ground pop-up at Printemps in Paris one year ago with about 10 brands.
Shinsegae, the Korean department store giant that generated roughly 7.4 trillion South Korean won, or $5.3 billion, in revenue in 2025, is opening a three-month K-beauty pop-up in New York. The move signals its ambition to become a U.S. beauty retail player.
The 2,000-square-foot pop-up, called Hyper Ground, opens Friday at The Shops at Hudson Yards and runs seven days a week through December. It will feature more than 30 K-beauty brands, the majority of which have not yet been picked up by retailers Stateside.
The lineup includes Skit, a skin care line launched by Korean model Irene Kim; MiHak, which offers fragrances and body care; and makeup, skin and lifestyle brands including Bbia, Ongredients, Mujagi, Epais, AZH, Kundal, Tender Garden, Paul & Anna and Yunjac.
"Rather than simply presenting a large assortment of Korean brands, we wanted to curate a point of view around what feels most interesting and relevant in Seoul right now," said JinKyung Park, senior manager of Shinsegae's fashion platform team, merchandising division.
The pop-up is organized by themed zones. A "Seoul Senses" area will present home and fragrance products. A "Night Reset" section will carry hair care and nighttime-oriented self care offerings. A "Seoul Morning & City Glow" zone will focus on facial skin care and devices.
The New York launch comes one year after Shinsegae hosted an inaugural Hyper Ground pop-up at Printemps in Paris with about 10 brands. The Paris edition taught the company a clear lesson about what international consumers now expect from Korean brands.
"One of our biggest takeaways from Paris was that international consumers are no longer interested in Korean brands simply because they are Korean. They already have a fairly sophisticated understanding of K-beauty and K-fashion, and they increasingly want to know why a particular brand matters," said Park. "Product performance remains important, of course, but brand identity, visual storytelling, founder stories and the connection to contemporary Korean lifestyle all played a meaningful role in driving engagement and purchase."
Shinsegae is entering a market with demonstrable momentum. NielsenIQ data shows 29 percent of U.S. households now purchase K-beauty products each year, up from 23 percent a year ago and 19.7 percent two years ago. The appetite has grown rapidly since 2024, when TikTok brought a wave of next-gen brands from the region, including Beauty of Joseon, Dr. Melaxin and Anua, to global consumers' radars.
Ulta Beauty, Target and Sephora have raced to secure deals with the category's most coveted brands. Sephora also now carries a curation of Olive Young brands, months after Korea's largest beauty retailer opened its first U.S. store in California. Shinsegae is now looking to carve out its own position.
"Our role is not simply to export Korean products. It is to identify emerging brands early, curate them for the local consumer and provide a platform that can serve as a first step into the market," said Park.
Hyper Ground's brand mix reflects that strategy. Most of the participating labels lack existing U.S. retail distribution, which positions the pop-up as a testing ground for brands seeking their first American foothold — and for Shinsegae, a bid to become the curator that international consumers turn to when they want to know why a particular Korean brand matters.
Source: WWD
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Senior reporter covering business strategy at Eurasian Beauty Journal.
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