What: Shinsegae has opened Hyper Ground, a three-month, 2,000-square-foot K-beauty pop-up at The Shops at Hudson Yards in New York, featuring more than 30 Korean brands, most of them not yet sold at U.S. retail.

Why it is important:  As Olive Young, Sephora, Ulta and Target compete for the best-known K-beauty brands, Shinsegae is competing on early discovery and curation instead of scale.

Shinsegae, which generated roughly 7.4 trillion won ($5.3 billion) in revenue in 2025, opened its Hyper Ground pop-up at The Shops at Hudson Yards on September 25. Open seven days a week through December, the 2,000-square-foot space features more than 30 K-beauty brands, including Skit, a skin care line from model Irene Kim, MiHak, Bbia, Ongredients and Kundal. It is organised into themed zones: "Seoul Senses" for home and fragrance, "Night Reset" for hair care and night-time self-care, and "Seoul Morning & City Glow" for facial skin care and devices.

The format follows an inaugural Hyper Ground at Printemps Paris a year earlier. According to JinKyung Park of Shinsegae's merchandising division, the key lesson was that international consumers no longer buy Korean brands simply for their origin; brand identity, visual storytelling, founder stories and links to contemporary Korean lifestyle drive engagement and purchase.

The timing reflects fast-growing U.S. demand. NielsenIQ data shows 29% of U.S. households now buy K-beauty each year, up from 23% a year ago and 19.7% two years ago. Shinsegae aims to identify emerging brands early and offer them a first step into the market.

IADS Notes: Shinsegae's New York pop-up builds on a format the group has been refining across markets. The first Hyperground pop-up at Printemps Paris came with a VIP benefits agreement between the two department stores and a stated plan to roll the concept out worldwide (The Chosun Daily, June 2025). A few months later, a short activation with Metro at Singapore's Paragon introduced six Korean fashion and lifestyle brands through a local co-design partnership (Inside Retail, September 2025). The U.S. move places Shinsegae in a market where Korea's beauty specialist has set the pace. Olive Young announced its American entry as a direct challenge to Sephora and Ulta Beauty, both of which were already expanding their K-beauty ranges (BoF, November 2025). It then secured a deal to bring a curated selection of its brands into Sephora's global network (BoF, January 2026), before opening in Pasadena with dedicated local logistics (Bloomberg, May 2026). Olive Young has built scale and distribution, so Shinsegae is competing on early discovery and editorial curation. It is betting that a department store's point of view can still launch brands that the category leaders have not yet signed.

Shinsegae wants to be a U.S. beauty player, too