South Korean retail chain Olive Young wanted to improve efficiency, speed, and order accuracy. The health and beauty company recently deployed Libiao Robotics’ T-Sort handling technology in its new 355,000 sq. ft. national distribution center in Gyeonggi Province.
Established in 1999, Olive Young said it is a market leader in the booming K-beauty sector. It currently operates more than 1,300 stores and said its online marketplace for a wide product range has experienced rapid growth since the COVID-19 pandemic.
To fulfill greater volumes of online orders at a faster throughput, Olive Young chose an automated storage system from Libiao Robotics. Olive Young built the integrated logistics center, which became operational in September 2024, to service numerous stores in the Seoul metropolitan area, as well as to handle its national and export online sales.
The center features a single-layer structure for efficient inventory operation and management. It integrates logistics functions across multiple Olive Young brands – including its private labels such as Bio Heal boH and WAKEMAKE – that were previously fulfilled at three separate sites.
The companies claimed that the warehouse’s location and sophisticated technology enable Olive Young to offer customers in the Seoul metropolitan area a same-day delivery option.
Libiao Robotics’ T-Sort supports beauty fulfillment
At the heart of the facility lies Libiao and partner Tompkins Robotics’ flexible T-Sort sorting system. The Hangzhou, China-based company said it can fulfill orders quickly and efficiently.
The system features 320 of Libiao’s “mini yellow” autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), which collect ordered items from one of four induction stations.
After collecting these items, the robots feed them to one of the center’s 32 workstations. Warehouse employees collect these prior to dispatch. In this case, Libiao custom-produced the AMRs in bright green, at Olive Young’s request, to match its brand color requirements.
Olive Young noted that the T-Sort system should be able to fulfill 2,190 customer orders per hour and handle the most fragile beauty products.
Olive Young expects scalability
The entire system occupies a footprint of just 4,900 sq. ft. (455.2 sq. m), allowing Olive Young to convert spare warehouse space to other added-value operations. Furthermore, the system operates smoothly and quietly (≥72dB). This provides a comfortable working environment for Olive Young’s warehouse team, said Libiao Robotics.
The company added that the T-Sort system, which was implemented with local partner CJ Logistics, can deliver reliable service even during large-scale sales such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. During this time, overseas orders soar up to five times compared to normal times.
Thanks to its scalable design, Olive Young can add or take away Libiao’s “mini yellows” or “mini greens” amid fluctuating volumes without the need for any infrastructural adjustments.
“This Libiao T-Sort installation at Olive Young represents a significant landmark in Libiao’s history, as it is the largest installation so far in South Korea,” said Ronan Shen, Libiao Robotics’ global head of business. “When Olive Young saw a chance to grow its business along with the increased global interest in K-beauty products, it was careful to choose a robotics partner that matches its vision, has rock-solid tried-and-tested systems, and enables future expansion without the associated infrastructural costs that come with rival systems.”
Founded in 2016, Libiao Robotics said it has deployed more than 35,000 sorting robots around the world for customers including Walmart, JD.com, Procter & Gamble, USPS, and Mitsui & Co.