Amazon is accelerating the global territorial expansion of K-beauty brands. Next year it will support 100 K-beauty brands entering the European market, while in the United States it will foster new brands and push to expand product categories such as hair care. It will respond to counterfeit goods riding the wave of K-beauty’s popularity with a zero-tolerance policy.
Hannah Shin, head of Amazon Global Selling Korea, said at Amazon Beauty in Seoul 2026 at the Grand Intercontinental Seoul Parnas in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the 27th, “K-beauty has moved beyond a fleeting trend to establish itself as a global industry,” and added, “Now is not the time to question how long the K-beauty craze will last but to decide how to further grow the market and raise market share.”
K-beauty continues to grow on Amazon. From January to September this year, sales of beauty products by Korean sellers on Amazon nearly doubled from a year earlier. During the same period, sales by new sellers also doubled, and repeat purchases of K-beauty products rose 20% year over year.
At this year’s Prime Day, Amazon’s biggest sale event of the year, K-beauty brands such as Medicube of APR(278470) and Anua stood out. In particular, in Europe, the Middle East, and Australia, sales of beauty products by Korean sellers grew faster than in the United States.
Shin said, “Europe has been a market held back not by a lack of demand but by entry barriers such as product certification and regulatory compliance,” adding, “As these barriers are resolved, growth rates are surging not only in the United Kingdom but also in France, Italy, and Spain. K-beauty products need to enter Europe as soon as possible.”
In fact, BIODANCE, which had entered only the United Kingdom last year, expanded its sales countries this year to Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. During last month’s Amazon sales event, Prime Big Deal Days, its Europe sales increased 50 times from a year earlier. Excluding the United Kingdom, sales in the four countries accounted for more than half of total Europe sales
Starting next year, Amazon plans to support about 100 major K-beauty brands entering Europe through Project Autobahn. It will reduce burdens that arise in the local entry process, such as tax registration, product certification, regulatory compliance, and multilingual product listings, and will also help existing entrants expand their sales countries.
In the U.S. market, it will focus on nurturing new brands and strengthening the competitiveness of existing brands. Through Project Million, it will support 50 new sellers next year so that each can achieve more than $1 million (about 1.32 billion won) in sales in their first year on Amazon in the United States. The support will cover the entire sales process, from product planning to product listings, inventory management, logistics, and advertising/marketing.
For seven leading brands with high growth potential, it will pursue Project Titan. Over the next three years, it will intensively support new product launches, pricing strategies, logistics, and marketing to build successful models and then expand those to other K-beauty brands. The specific list of brands will be announced later.
Shin said, “Over the past two years, new seller onboarding has steadily increased, but we concluded that onboarding alone is no longer enough,” adding, “We will strengthen support for brands with strong growth potential.”
It will also broaden product categories concentrated in skin care. Through Project Silk Road, Amazon plans next year to secure 50 new sellers in hair care and wellness and to unveil 200 new products. Of these, 20 strategic products will launch before Prime Day next year.
Shin said, “Hair care is a market as large as skin care, but K-beauty’s penetration is still only 1%,” adding, “We can apply the ingredient and formulation development capabilities proven in skin care to hair care as well.”
It will take a hard line against the growing number of counterfeits riding K-beauty’s popularity. Shin said, “Counterfeits affect not only brands but also Amazon’s credibility as a place to buy,” adding, “We will respond with a zero-tolerance policy.” It plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to filter suspected counterfeit products from sales listings and to set up a system that allows consumers to verify authenticity themselves.
Yoon Sang-hyun, vice chairman of Kolmar Group, who attended the event, cited Korea’s cosmetics industry ecosystem—where brand, distribution, and manufacturing capabilities come together—as the background for K-beauty’s growth. He said the emergence of new brands is constant, and a variety of distribution channels such as Olive Young, Naver, Coupang, and Musinsa, along with world-class manufacturing technology, are underpinning growth.
Yoon said, “Korea is currently the best country in the world to run a cosmetics brand or related business,” adding, “The Korean cosmetics market is a place where a survival audition program plays out every day.” He added, “Growth in the Korean market is directly translating into the global market, and Amazon is playing the biggest role.”
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