How we pick stores

Sending people to the cheapest price is only useful if the store is real and actually ships. Every store on KaeYoung is added by hand after a check, and it stays only while it keeps passing. No store pays to be listed or to rank higher: prices are always sorted by price.

Before a store is added

• It is an established shop. Its website has been around for a while (we look up when the domain was registered, and a domain under a year old gets a much closer look), with a business name, a real email or phone, and its own refund and shipping policies.
• Other buyers know it. It has reviews (Trustpilot, Google) or is known in the community: official stockist and store-finder lists, and recommendations from buyers.
• We read its prices from its own shop. In its own currency, product by product, and a listing must match exactly or it is left out.
• No marketplace sellers, drop-shippers or copycat sites, and never a store anyone has reported as a scam.

After it is listed

• A weekly check of every store's website. A store whose site stops answering, is parked or up for sale, or suddenly moves to a different address is taken off. New bad reviews or missing contact details get a look by hand.
• Too-good-to-be-true prices are dropped. Every product is matched only by its Korean barcode, so a fake or a different size can't borrow a real product's page, and with three or more stores selling it, a price under 40% of their median is dropped automatically. A price like that is usually a mistake or the wrong product, so it is never shown as the cheapest.
• Reported stores are checked first. A store that turns out to be a scam is removed and banned for good.

eBay, Amazon and the partner retailers pinned above the stores are labelled as paid links and never counted as a store or as the cheapest. We don't vet the individual eBay and Amazon sellers, so check a seller's feedback before you buy.

Report a store

Had a problem with a store we list, or does one look wrong to you? Tell us here. You don't need an account. Know a good shop for Korean skincare we are missing? Suggest it.

Before you buy anywhere

• Pay by card or PayPal, which let you dispute a charge. Be careful with a shop that only takes bank transfer or crypto.
• A price far under every other store is a warning sign, not a bargain.
• Check the shop's contact page and policies, and look it up on Trustpilot or Google before a big order.