Olive Young's 3,000-won tote bag has sold about 2.27 million units as foreign shoppers fill its stores
Seoul Economic Daily reported on 1 November that Olive Young sold about 2.27 million reusable bags by September; foreigners made up about 33% of store sales.
Published
2 November 2026 — Seoul Economic Daily reported on 1 November that CJ Olive Young's 3,000-won tarpaulin shopping bag, launched in January 2025, had sold about 2.27 million units through September 2026. Foreign visitors use it to carry cosmetics, and photographs of travellers with the bag at airports have circulated on social media.
What the report described
According to the paper, foreign customers' cumulative purchases at Olive Young's offline stores passed KRW 1 trillion between January and August, three months earlier than the year before, and foreigners accounted for about 33 per cent of offline sales. Resellers on China's Xianyu marketplace listed the bag in September at roughly KRW 5,900 to 7,300.
The report added that Olive Young's own merchandise range, launched in March with 10 items, sold about 50,000 units in Korea through August, with foreign customers making up about 70 per cent of those sales. Rival retailers have followed: Musinsa's bag sold more than 270,000 units by early October and 7-Eleven's Sanrio-themed bags more than 300,000 in total.
THE CAST shopping perspective
A tote bag that travellers photograph at the airport shows how closely a Korea trip is now tied to one big beauty chain. That is a strength for the chain and a reason to plan the rest of your basket on purpose. If you want something the bag-carrying crowd will not already own, add one Korean brand from a curated store to the chain haul, and confirm the delivery total before you pay.