The post will share my review of the biggest Health and Beauty retailer in South Korea, Olive Young Global.
Before I go on to this review, here’s a little back story. I have acne-prone, dry, dehydrated skin.
Two years ago, I discovered Korean Skincare, which transformed my life.
My skin used to be so dehydrated and ashy that I also got bullied by it when I was young.
Imagine my euphoria when I discovered Korean Skincare, which has a HEAVY emphasis on hydration.
By trying a few brands, I quickly discovered holy grail products that leave my skin hydrated and glowing.
As a result of my love for Kbeauty, I started a blog to review my favourite products and recommend the best products based on my experience and my general understanding of skincare ingredients.
At the moment, I have a Storage Tower that is filled with Korean Skincare products. I have enough products to last for an entire year.
I buy products weekly from independent sellers on eBay and monthly from larger Korean retailers.
This is how much I am invested in Korean Skincare.
Last year, I decided to go out of my safety net of eBay sellers and experiment with the more giant retailers that operate out of Asia.
I wanted to experience them individually and share my findings with my readers.
So far, I’ve written about Jolse, StyleVana, YesStyle and Dokodemo, all within the last quarter of 2020.
Obviously, we are in a pandemic, so I have plenty of time and extra cash to check out these retailers and share my experiences.
The last retailer on my list was Olive Young Global, which I was mad excited about.
I mean, I watch Korean YouTubers, and I hear how they rave about Olive Young Global in their shopping vlogs.
Of course, I eventually could not resist, especially since I watch those videos regularly.
So, I placed my order in November during the 11:11 sale.
The Good: First Impressions of Olive Young Global
The first time I clicked on the Olive Young Global website, there are a few things that immediately jumped at me:
The Product Selection
As a heavyweight in South Korea, Olive Young Global is one of the first retailers to stock products from new and emerging brands.
Yes, you will probably still see a few Cosrx and Dear Klairs products, but unlike other retailers, you’ll only see the latest releases from those brands.
Other times, you find a few bestselling products.
The point is, you don’t go to Olive Young Global to stock up on your staple and holy grail products.
No, you check out the latest award-winning brands currently prevalent in South Korea.
This is how I found out about the Round Lab brand.
Exclusive Bargains and Deals
Olive Young was the first website that I saw that sells products in unique sets.
No, it is not the typical starter set every other retailer sells.
These are the two-in-one product that is an absolute bargain.
Imagine buying a 400ml Toner with an extra 200ml bottle for half the price of both.
An absolute steal if you ask me.
I actually believe that other retailers might buy from Olive Young, separate the set and sell them individually.
It is entirely possible.
Unbeatable Sales
It is one thing to get a great bargain.
It is yet another to get that bargain on sale.
Unlike StyleVana and YesStyle, their sales make a lot of sense.
It is not gimmicky or shady in any way.
Depending on what membership level you are on, you also get coupons which you can actually use.
It got to a point where I had to stop myself from checking their app because it got too tempting every single time.
$60 Free Shipping
One of the reasons why I didn’t hesitate to shop on Olive Young Global was their free shipping threshold.
Unlike StyleKorean and Wishtrend, which both have $150 thresholds, this was way affordable for me, especially when it is converted to GBP.
Website Navigation
For someone that is very keen on the UI/UX of any e-commerce website, I actually enjoy navigating the Olive Young Global website.
The products and brands are well categorized.
Even the products for each sale are all categorized on one landing page, which makes it easy to shop all at once. It’s definitely an A+ for me.
The Ugly: Review of Olive Young Global
As you can tell from the title, I did not have a good experience with Olive Young.
When I think about all the bad online shopping experiences I had in 2020, this one tops it.
Their Poor International Shipping & Shitty Refund Policy
As I mentioned earlier, when you spend $60, you get free shipping. While this is a laudable effort, it doesn’t extend to shipping.
Here’s what happened:
I placed an order in the first week of November, and it was processed and shipped out in about two to three days.
Like others, I was sent the tracking number, which I checked briefly and wholly neglected.
This is because I shop from Asia (South Korea, Japan, Thailand and China) all the time, and my packages always get to me in two weeks.
Tops five weeks if there is a delay. In the event that it doesn’t and gets lost, I typically get a full refund.
I’d like to mention that during this period, I shopped from YesStyle and Dokodemo at almost the same time.
This means that I had three separate packages in transit.
So, YesStyle came first in two weeks, followed by Dokodemo, which I had to pay customs fees for.
I didn’t mind because the package eventually got to me after clearing the customs fees.
You would not believe it…
After about six weeks, I went to the Olive Young Global website to ask about the whereabouts of my package through the customer service form.
In a twist of events, for reasons that I could not wrap my head around, my package was actually on its way BACK to Korea.
Apparently, I did not pay customs fees, so the package was returned.
Which was really weird because the package never got to me AT ALL, unlike my Dokodemo order the previous week.
Obviously, I would not back down.
After a bit of back and forth, I was shown their return policy, which states that they don’t reship or make refunds in situations like this.
This actually made my blood boil.
So I went to other retailers to check their return policies; behold, Olive Young was the exception.
Every other company offered a full refund or reshipped the package at no expense to the customer.
That was ridiculous and disappointing, particularly for a massive retailer like Olive Young.
If it was a smaller indie brand, I would totally understand, but a large corporation?
That was really low.
After threatening to expose them on the Asian communities on Facebook and Reddit like the Purito saga, they eventually bulged and decided to deduct the shipping fee and refund the rest.
I was slightly pacified until I found out that I would be left with crumbs.
They took the entire money under ‘shipping costs’ and refunded $18. I was livid.
Ultimately, I gave them a piece of my mind and swore never to shop at Olive Young again.
In the end,
While I can’t stop you from shopping on Olive Young Global, I would say you should do so at your own discretion, bearing in mind that you would not get a full refund if your package gets lost.
Or the shipping company decided not to get to your home.
To be honest, you are better off shopping at Jolse or StyleVana.
Olive Young should have dealt with this situation with their Logistics Partner and not allowed me to bear the burn.
This is such smelly behaviour for a giant retailer, and I hope they change their ways.
Yikes. I was thinking of ordering some skincare products from Olive Young since they were out of stock on Yesstyle. I think I’ll just wait for Yesstyle. Thank you for sharing your experience.