CJ Olive Young Corp., the distribution unit of South Korean food-to-cosmetics conglomerate CJ Group, on Wednesday opened a foreigner-focused outlet in Seoul as travelers return to the country after years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CJ Olive Young's outlet in Myeongdong, central Seoul, underwent a large-scale renewal to serve as an online-to-offline (O2O) shopping platform mainly for the convenience of foreign customers.

O2O commerce is a business model that draws potential customers from online channels to make purchases in physical stores.

"Customers place an order for cosmetics and beauty products at CJ Olive Young's online shopping app and pick them up at Olive Young Myeongdong Town," the company said in a statement.

The renewed store offers information services in three languages -- English, Chinese and Japanese, it said.

From January to October, foreign purchases at CJ Olive Young's Myeondong outlet soared 840 percent from the same period of last year as an increased number of customers from China, Japan, Britain, Southeast Asia and United States opened their wallets.

The number of foreign visitors to South Korea stayed above 1 million for the third consecutive month in September, according to the Korea Tourism Organization. (Yonhap)