Olive Young for Tourists: Tax Refund, Membership, Store Hours

What to do

Bring your physical passport, fill one basket worth at least ₩15,000 of taxable items, and hand the passport over before you pay. At a store with the instant refund, the tax comes off at the till, so you pay the lower price on the spot. Skip the Olive Young Global app membership for in-store perks, because it only works online.

The figures here come from the Olive Young Myeongdong Global store page and the VisitKorea tax refund guide, both checked on 2 November 2026.

How does the instant tax refund work at Olive Young?

The instant refund takes the VAT off at the counter when you show a passport and spend ₩15,000 or more on one receipt. Olive Young puts the saving at 5 to 8% of the purchase amount.

1. Shop as usual and bring everything to one till, so a single receipt reaches ₩15,000.
2. Give the cashier your passport before payment starts. VisitKorea says the store checks your eligibility through the passport.
3. Pay the reduced total. The Myeongdong Global store also takes Alipay and WeChat Pay.
4. Keep the receipt and leave the products unopened until you fly.

You qualify if you are a foreigner who has been in Korea up to 6 months. VisitKorea also covers overseas Koreans who have lived abroad 2 years or more and have been in Korea 3 months or less. The general rules, including airport claims, are in our tax refund guide.

What are the limits?

One instant refund purchase must be under ₩1,000,000, and all your instant refunds over the trip can total ₩5,000,000 at most. Above those amounts you pay full price and claim the tax later with a voucher.

Rule	Amount (as of November 2026)
Minimum per receipt	₩15,000 of taxable items
Instant refund per purchase	Under ₩1,000,000
Instant refund per trip	₩5,000,000 in total
Refund rate (Olive Young figure)	5 to 8% of the purchase
Excluded items	Sanitary goods, shopping bags, dried fruit products

Does the Olive Young Global app give discounts in Korea?

Membership in the Olive Young Global app does not carry over to stores in Korea. The OY MEMBERS terms state that the program works only on OLIVE YOUNG Global, the overseas online mall. Its points (1 point = US$1) are spent on that site only.

The Korean in-store membership is a separate program. The Myeongdong Global store describes it as open to residents of Korea with a phone number in their own name, which most visitors do not have.

What the global account does unlock is one in-store coupon. The Visit Korea and Enjoy 5% OFF event gives 5% off an order of ₩100,000 or more, capped at ₩20,000. You show proof on your phone that you follow an official OLIVE YOUNG Global social account at checkout.

The coupon has firm limits. It works once per person, only at the branches the event page lists (in Seoul these include the Lotte World Mall branches), not at self-checkout kiosks, and not with other coupons.

Which flagship stores should you visit, and when are they open?

The two flagships most visitors go to are Myeongdong Global and Olive Young N Seongsu. Both open at 10:00 every day.

Store	Address	Hours	Nearest exit
Myeongdong Global	53 Myeongdong-gil, Jung-gu	10:00 to 22:30 daily	Myeongdong Station (Line 4) Exit 8, or Euljiro Entrance Station (Line 2) Exit 5
N Seongsu	13 Yeonmujang 7-gil, Seongdong-gu (Factoryal Seongsu)	10:00 to 22:00, Monday to Sunday	Seongsu Station (Line 2) Exit 4, about 118 m

Myeongdong Global keeps skin care, sun care and masks on the first floor. Makeup, hair, fragrance, men’s care and health products are on the second floor, along with a Global Service Lounge that offers free Wi-Fi and a seating area. The store sells paper bags for ₩100 and reusable bags for ₩500, and gift wrapping costs ₩1,000 to ₩2,500 depending on size.

N Seongsu is the largest Olive Young in Korea, about 4,620 square meters over five floors, according to CJ Group. The same release mentions multilingual staff and electronic English product labels. Visit Seoul notes that the fourth floor lounge checks your membership tier before you enter. The Myeongdong store says its hours may vary, so check before a late trip.

What goes wrong for visitors, and how do you fix it?

“I left my passport at the hotel.” Without the physical passport, the Myeongdong Global store will not apply the instant refund. Ask for a refund voucher instead, then claim the tax at the airport refund counter when you leave.

Your receipt looks like it passes ₩15,000, yet the till says no. Shopping bags, sanitary goods and dried fruit snacks are not tax refundable, so they drop out of the eligible total. Add another taxable item to the same receipt rather than paying in two smaller transactions.

The app points you collected at home do nothing at the counter. OLIVE YOUNG Global membership is an online program only, and the official terms rule out local stores in Korea. If you want an in-store saving, use the one-time 5% follower coupon at a listed branch, or simply rely on the tax refund.

A big haul goes over the instant limit. Any single purchase of ₩1,000,000 or more, or a trip total above ₩5,000,000, cannot be refunded at the till. Take the voucher and claim it at a downtown refund counter or the airport, as VisitKorea describes.

You hold a GTF voucher from another shop and no time for the airport desk. The Myeongdong Global store runs a GTF desk in its second floor lounge. Bring the physical passport and a voucher from GTF, the same refund company Olive Young uses, and staff there can process it.

When this does not apply

The instant refund is not for people who have stayed in Korea longer than 6 months, according to VisitKorea. Purchases under ₩15,000 on one receipt do not qualify.

Olive Young sets its own hours and event terms, and the tax refund caps come from national rules that can change. Check the official pages before you go.