Hannaru Opens Korean Beauty Wholesale to Global Buyers with Direct Brand Access

B2B platform connects global retailers directly with 220+ verified Korean cosmetics brand owners, removing the 15-40% distributor markup

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, August 19, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Hannaru, a business-to-business sourcing platform for Korean cosmetics, is giving international retailers something the industry has rarely offered: a direct line to the people who actually make the products.

For most overseas buyers, Korean beauty wholesale means working through layers of exporters and trading companies, or waiting for one of a handful of annual trade shows. Both routes carry a cost. Vendors and agents typically add a 15 to 40 percent markup on top of brand pricing, and because messages pass through several parties, a simple question about minimum order quantity can take weeks to answer.

Hannaru replaces that model with an always-open marketplace. Buyers browse verified brand profiles, message brand managers directly, download catalogs and price lists, compare minimum order quantities and certifications, and schedule online or offline meetings — with no intermediary in between.

The platform currently hosts 220+ verified Korean beauty brands across skincare, makeup, haircare, body care and fragrance, each with a detailed profile covering product lines, brand story and sourcing information. Buyers can also request one-to-one video meetings with brand representatives, making the service function, in effect, as a trade show that runs 365 days a year rather than three days a year.

"Most buyers we meet have the same problem — they can find Korean products easily, but they cannot find the people behind them," said Sungjin Kim, CEO at Hannaru. "We built the shortest possible path between a buyer and a brand owner, and then removed everything else."

Sample first, order later

A recurring obstacle in cross-border beauty sourcing is commitment. Buyers are asked to place bulk orders for products they have never handled, and texture, scent and finish are often what decide whether a product sells on a shelf. Requesting samples the traditional way multiplies the problem: every brand ships separately, so five brands means five parcels and five freight bills.

Hannaru addresses this with Naru Box, a curated sampling program that lets a buyer fill a single box with samples from any participating brands and pay one flat shipping charge. Most samples are currently free — the buyer pays only for shipping — and the box is tracked door to door. For retailers who are not sure where to start, Hannaru also assembles curated sets that combine products from several brands in one tap.

Shipping is quoted on the same principle. Hannaru publishes the flat rate for every destination zone — from about twenty-six US dollars for a box up to one kilogram into East and Southeast Asia to forty-seven into the rest of the world — taken from the Korea Post EMS table the checkout itself uses. Each zone is priced at its most expensive destination country, so a quote never under-charges, and duties are stated as excluded.

The concept borrows from the Korean ham, a carefully packed chest historically used to carry valuables. Applied to sourcing, it lets retailers evaluate formulation and packaging quality before committing to a purchase order, and it reduces the sampling stage from several separate shipments to one.

Built for the buyer's workflow

Beyond discovery, the platform is organized around the questions a wholesale buyer actually asks. Brand profiles surface minimum order quantities and certifications alongside product specifications, so buyers can filter out brands that do not fit their market before starting a conversation. Category pages group Korean skincare wholesale, colour cosmetics, haircare and private-label or OEM partners, and buyers can move from a category view to a direct message with the brand owner without leaving the site.

Certification data is part of that filtering, because it often decides whether a brand is usable in a given market at all. Registration requirements differ sharply by destination, and a brand that is straightforward to import into one region may be blocked in another until paperwork that takes months is complete. Surfacing that information at the browsing stage, rather than after a buyer has already invested weeks in a conversation, is intended to shorten the path from interest to a decision.

The same logic applies to product data. Each listing carries the specifications the brand itself supplies — formulation details, volumes and packaging — so that comparisons across brands are made on the brands' own records rather than on reformatted marketing copy.

Why "Hannaru"

The name reflects the company's position in the supply chain. Han means Korea, and naru is the old Korean word for a river harbor — the place where journeys begin and where boats gather before setting out. For centuries merchants met at the naru to trade across the water. Hannaru is intended as that port for Korean beauty: where the category sets sail for the world, and where global buyers dock to meet its makers directly.

Retailers, distributors and e-commerce sellers can browse the full brand directory at https://hannaru.com.

About Hannaru

Hannaru (formerly knok) is a Korean beauty B2B sourcing platform connecting global retail buyers directly with Korean cosmetic brand owners. The platform provides verified brand profiles, direct messaging with brand managers, catalog and price list access, minimum order quantity and certification data, meeting scheduling, and the Naru Box sampling program. Hannaru is operated by KMONDS Corp and is based in South Korea.

Jean-Baptiste
Hannaru
jean-baptiste@hannaru.com
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