Original Coverage & Source Attribution: en.sedaily.com
Kurly’s private-label beauty brand Dew is expected to begin selling on Amazon, the largest U.S. e-commerce platform, and on social commerce platform TikTok Shop by the end of this year. The move is seen as an effort to accelerate the company’s push into the U.S. market by adding major local online sales channels to Kurly USA, its existing cross-border shopping platform.
Kurly is pursuing plans to enter Amazon and TikTok Shop in the U.S. within the year with Dew, according to reporting by The Seoul Economic Daily on the 9th. The company plans to start with sheet masks and gradually expand its product lineup depending on how local consumers respond.
Kurly unveiled Dew, a dermatology-based beauty brand, in September and launched two products: the Dew Glow 5X Toning Two-Step Facial Film Mask, focused on brightening care, and the Dew Hydro 5X Hyalcore Two-Step Facial Film Mask, aimed at hydration and moisturizing care. The U.S. entry marks an attempt to expand the business overseas about three months after the brand’s debut. Kurly recently began recruiting specialists to support the U.S. expansion.
The company intends to widen its U.S. sales network through the Amazon and TikTok Shop listings. It is expected to pursue a two-track strategy combining Kurly USA, the cross-border platform it opened in August last year, with major local e-commerce platforms to build brand awareness and attract new customers. Marketing collaborations tied to its existing cross-border business are also expected to generate synergies.
The move is read as a strategy to develop the beauty business into a new growth engine as competition intensifies in South Korea’s domestic e-commerce market. By taking its own beauty brand overseas, Kurly aims to diversify a business structure centered on fresh grocery delivery at home.
Industry watchers interpret the U.S. entry as linked to a strategy to raise the company’s valuation ahead of a renewed push for an initial public offering. Kurly, which has extended a recent streak of improving earnings, needs to present a medium- to long-term growth strategy beyond its existing business to win a higher valuation during the IPO process. On a consolidated basis, second-quarter revenue rose 27% from a year earlier to 734.8 billion won, while operating profit surged 1,991% over the same period to 27.4 billion won, marking the company’s best quarterly performance on record.
“Dew, Kurly’s first beauty private-label brand, will build brand awareness through Amazon and TikTok Shop to test its global competitiveness,” a Kurly official said. “We plan to review business expansion going forward based on local response.”
