Vietnam market entry · K-beauty distribution

ENTERINGVIETNAM

What a Korean brand actually has to do to sell a product in Vietnam, in what order, and on what paperwork. Cosmetics is the worked example throughout. SELLi runs this process directly from its Incheon head office and its Ho Chi Minh City office.

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The short answer

Entering Vietnam runs in a fixed order: validate market fit, notify the product (Công bố), clear customs and land the stock, list on the marketplaces, sell live, then move into offline retail. The order cannot be rearranged, because without the notification receipt number there is no official distribution, and without that there is no accredited listing on Shopee or TikTok Shop. The statutory decision window is three working days. The months go into the documents that come before it, above all consular legalisation.

The vocabulary first

These words are ordinary to a trade team and unfamiliar to a brand marketing manager. They recur throughout, so they are defined once here.

Customs clearance
The inspection and approval a shipment goes through at the border before it is legally imported. Until clearance is done the goods cannot be distributed inside Vietnam. Clearance happens after the goods reach the port, but the documents it depends on have to be finished long before.
Product notification (Công bố)
Filing a cosmetic product's details with the health authority and receiving a receipt number before it may be sold in Vietnam. The instrument is Ministry of Health Circular 06/2011/TT-BYT, issued to implement the 2003 ASEAN Cosmetic Directive domestically.
Receipt number (Số tiếp nhận)
The number issued when a notification is accepted. The important point is that it is not an approval. Article 2(4) of the circular states expressly that the receipt number does not certify that the product is safe or effective. It is evidence that a declaration was filed, not a quality certificate.
CFS (Certificate of Free Sale)
A government document from the country of manufacture confirming the product is legitimately sold there. Mandatory for imported cosmetics.
PIF (Product Information File)
The dossier of ingredient, safety and manufacturing data. Article 11 requires the notifying entity to keep it at its own address and produce it if the authority asks.
Marketplace listing
Opening a seller account on Shopee, TikTok Shop or Lazada and getting products live. Creating the account is trivial; assembling the business and product documentation that makes it an accredited seller is the actual work.
Live commerce
Selling on a live broadcast, with the purchase happening during the stream. In Vietnam this runs inside TikTok Shop and Shopee, and it is how a brand nobody has heard of makes its first sales.
KOC and KOL
A KOC (Key Opinion Consumer) is a small reviewer close to an ordinary shopper. A KOL (Key Opinion Leader) is a large-following influencer. In Vietnamese commerce a spread of KOCs frequently converts better than a single KOL.
INCI
The International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients. The ingredient section of the notification form has to be written in INCI names, in descending order of content.

Where the market is now

In Vietnam, do not talk about Korea. A deal only happens when you can say this one thing will sell well in Vietnam.

Jessica Cho, CEO of COSNCO VINACosmorning, 25 July 2026 (translated from Korean)

At the same event, Cho Wan-soo, CEO of Coico, described this as the moment for a strategic approach aimed at making Vietnam a second domestic market for Korean beauty. The two remarks reduce to one sentence: the market is large and open, but a Korean track record is not by itself a negotiating card.

Korea's standing needs to be stated carefully. KOTRA data supports Korea as the largest single source of imported cosmetics in Vietnam, and in lip products Korea has led for four consecutive years at 73.3% share. But in KOTRA's own 2023 figures for HS 3304.99 skincare, China leads at 48.8% and Korea is second at 19.2%. The competitive picture differs by category, so it is worth rechecking against your own.

The sequence, and what actually happens at each step

The order below is not a preference. Each step produces the input the next one needs. Projects that run late are usually projects that tried to skip a step and hit the wall further down.

  1. Validate market fit

    First, and the step most often skipped

    Selling well in Korea is not evidence that a product will sell in Vietnam. Before anything else we check, against real TikTok Shop and Shopee sales data, what local shoppers in the same category are actually paying and which formats and ingredients are moving. If the price band does not work, everything after this becomes sunk cost. That is why SELLi asks for product details before quoting anything.

  2. Fix the range and the supply

    Deciding what goes, and in how many SKUs

    Taking the entire catalogue across at once is almost always the wrong call: notification is done product by product and the state fee is charged per dossier, so cost and preparation scale almost linearly with SKU count. Start with a small validated range. Where the price band demands it, we build a different line-up through Korean and Australian manufacturing and ODM networks.

  3. Secure the documents

    The step that sets the real schedule

    For an imported product, both the Certificate of Free Sale and the letter of authorisation have to be consular-legalised. Getting the originals from the manufacturer, having signatures certified, and completing legalisation is where most of the calendar actually goes. The table below sets out each document.

  4. File the notification

    Three working days by statute

    Imported cosmetics are filed with the Drug Administration of Vietnam at the Ministry of Health. Under Article 7(2), the receipt number is issued within three working days of a valid dossier and the fee being received. A deficient dossier draws written notice within five working days, another five working days apply after the correction is filed, and the notification lapses if it is not corrected within three months. The receipt number is valid for five years from issue (Article 10).

  5. Customs and landing the stock

    Only starts once the paperwork is done

    Import clearance is completed and stock goes into a local warehouse. What is decided here is speed, not cost. With local stock an order ships the next day; without it, the border crossing is the delivery time. Marketplaces feed delivery speed into ranking, so where the stock sits is a revenue question.

  6. Marketplace listing

    Making the product sellable

    Stores go live on Shopee and TikTok Shop and products are listed. A translated Korean product page does not work. The page has to be rebuilt around what a local shopper buys on, and pricing and promotion structure have to follow local convention. SELLi runs this directly as an official TikTok strategic partner and a Shopee MCN partner.

  7. Live commerce and content

    Where the first sales actually come from

    A new brand does not sell through search, because nobody is searching for its name. Live selling and KOC seeding create demand outside the product page and return that traffic to the store. SELLi sold Starbucks Vietnam merchandise on TikTok Live, and built lunch and dinner ordering for KFC Vietnam around live, developing the programme that routes an order placed during the stream to the right restaurant.

  8. Offline retail and outdoor

    After the online numbers exist

    Local retail listings and wholesale channels open, and where it fits, outdoor advertising in the prime districts. The order matters: without online sales data there is no argument to put in front of a retail buyer, and outdoor run before the product is buyable builds recognition that has nowhere to convert.

The documents a cosmetic notification needs

Article 4 of the circular sets out the dossier for an imported cosmetic. There are four items, and the last two are what set the timeline.

DocumentWho provides itWhat to watch
Notification form (Phiếu công bố)The Vietnamese notifying entityTwo copies on form Annex 01-MP plus the soft copy. Ingredients go in INCI nomenclature in descending order of content, and full percentages are required only for ingredients carrying concentration limits in the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive annexes (Article 5(1)(c))
Copy of the business registration certificateThe Vietnamese notifying entitySigned and stamped. The notifying entity must be qualified to trade cosmetics in Vietnam (Article 3(3))
Letter of authorisation (Giấy ủy quyền)The manufacturer or product ownerFor imports the signature must be certified and the document consular-legalised. Article 6 sets seven mandatory elements, including an undertaking to supply the Product Information File on request
Certificate of Free Sale (CFS)The exporting country's governmentImported products only. Original or a validly certified copy, still in date. Where no issue date is shown it must have been issued within the previous 24 months. Consular legalisation required

Consular legalisation of the letter of authorisation and the CFS is required except where an international treaty Vietnam is party to provides an exemption (Article 4(3) and 4(4)).

SourceMinistry of Health Circular 06/2011/TT-BYT, Articles 4, 5 and 6

Where it is filed
Imported cosmetics go to the Drug Administration of Vietnam (Cục Quản lý Dược) at the Ministry of Health. Cosmetics manufactured in Vietnam go to the provincial Department of Health where the factory sits. Note that product filled or packed in Vietnam from imported bulk counts as domestic (Article 7(1)).
The fee
The state appraisal fee is 500,000 VND per dossier, under Ministry of Finance Circular 41/2023/TT-BTC, in force since 1 August 2023, which replaced the earlier 277/2016/TT-BTC. That is the fee paid to the state and is separate from any agency cost.
Validity and renewal
The receipt number is valid for five years from issue (Article 10). Re-notification must be filed before it expires and a fresh fee applies. Putting the renewal into the plan in year four is the safe approach.
The Product Information File obligation
The notifying entity must keep the PIF, containing ingredient and safety data, at its own address and produce it on request (Article 11). The obligation does not end when the notification is accepted.

Duty and VAT

What a Korean cosmetic pays on entry depends on the product and on whether a certificate of origin is presented. "Zero duty under the Korea-Vietnam FTA" is true for skincare and false for colour cosmetics.

HS codeProductMFN (no agreement)VKFTA (Korea-Vietnam)AKFTA (Korea-ASEAN)
3304.10Lip make-up20%5%5%
3304.20Eye make-up22%5%5%
3304.91Powders22%0%5%
3304.99.30Face and skin creams and lotions18%0%5%
3304.99.90Other18%0%5%

For Korean cosmetics VKFTA generally beats AKFTA. Claiming the VKFTA rate requires a Korean-issued form KV certificate of origin presented on import (Decree 125/2022/NĐ-CP, Article 4(3)). AKFTA uses form AK.

SourceDecrees 125/2022/NĐ-CP (VKFTA), 26/2023/NĐ-CP (MFN) and 81/2024/NĐ-CP (AKFTA)

What the cost actually depends on

There is no single entry cost. The variables that drive a quote are fixed, though, so checking them yourself gets you to a rough order of magnitude before you talk to anyone.

SKU count
The largest lever by some distance. Notification is per product and the state fee is per dossier, so documentation and registration cost scale almost linearly. A plan to launch ten items is usually several times the cost of a plan to launch three.
Ingredients and claims
Whether the formulation contains ingredients carrying concentration limits in the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive annexes changes how much ingredient work the notification needs. Where the formulation has to change, add a round trip with the manufacturer.
The state of the documents
Whether the manufacturer has issued a CFS and a letter of authorisation before, and whether it has been through consular legalisation, moves both the time and the cost materially. A first-time exporter and a manufacturer already shipping to several markets are not the same problem.
Opening volume
Volume moves unit cost and freight cost in opposite directions. Ship little and per-unit logistics rises; ship a lot and unsold local stock becomes the risk.
Channel mix
Marketplace only, marketplace plus live and content, or all of that plus offline and outdoor. The first is closer to a one-off cost and the last is a standing one.
Who the importer is
A local entity importing directly, or a local distribution partner acting as importer, changes the up-front cost and how much control the brand keeps. It also determines who the notifying entity is.

What the brand has to supply

Most of the delay in a market entry originates on the brand side, not the agency side. Below is what SELLi asks for at the start of a project. The first three come from the manufacturer, so they are the ones to start chasing on day one.

Full ingredient list
Every ingredient with its concentration, written in INCI. A list that exists only in Korean cannot go onto the notification form as it stands.
Certificate of Free Sale
Issuance and legalisation both take time, so this is the first thing to request. A CFS with no issue date has to have been issued within the previous 24 months, so an old copy may need replacing.
Letter of authorisation
From the manufacturer or product owner to the Vietnamese notifying entity. The signature has to be certified and the document legalised, and the mandatory content is prescribed, so a self-drafted letter is likely to be rejected.
A working channel to the manufacturer
Brand owner and manufacturer are usually different companies, and every document above originates with the manufacturer. Having a named contact there is the single biggest factor in the real timeline.
Trademark position
Check whether the mark has already been filed in Vietnam. Brands do discover, after distribution has started, that a third party filed first, and by then it is too late. The moment to check is the moment you decide to enter.
Original product imagery
Rebuilding a product page for the local market needs the source assets, not the flattened Korean page. Cropping the Korean detail page does not produce a page that works locally.
Pricing policy
The floor price and how far promotion may go. Without it, price erodes inside the marketplace, and eroded price is very hard to recover.

Entries SELLi has actually run

The projects below were operated by SELLi rather than introduced and handed off: local notification and customs through to store operation and broadcasts. Each links to its case study.

  • MAKEheal · local cosmetics registration and customs, Shopee and TikTok Shop listing, live commerce operation
  • GIVERNY · product registration and opening distribution, plus content and performance media built for local shoppers
  • Derm'ah matrix · sharpening the brand for local shoppers, marketplace store operation, offline distribution
  • Jejuindi · certification and product registration, opening channels, rebuilding the brand story in the local language
  • treecell · commerce channel operation and influencer seeding
  • C'LUII · brand content and channel operation
  • Starbucks Vietnam · TikTok Live merchandise selling, from planning through to KOC seeding
  • KFC Vietnam · TikTok Live lunch and dinner ordering, including the order-routing programme we built

One Korean cosmetics brand was launched from zero into a structure running TikTok Shop, Shopee, live commerce and wholesale at once, and now moves around 20,000 units a month. Based on SELLi operating results; the figure varies over time.

How overseas out-of-home is actually boughtThe step after the online numbers exist: Vietnamese OOH formats, the notification route, and the categories that cannot run at all

Questions we are asked

What is the process for exporting cosmetics to Vietnam?
Rewrite the ingredient list to INCI, obtain the Certificate of Free Sale and the letter of authorisation from the manufacturer and have both consular-legalised, then file the notification with the Drug Administration of Vietnam. The receipt number is issued within three working days of a valid dossier and the fee being received, after which customs clearance, local warehousing and marketplace listing follow. Without the receipt number there is no official distribution, so the order cannot be changed.
What exactly is Công bố?
Filing a cosmetic product's details with the health authority and receiving a receipt number before it may be sold in Vietnam. The instrument is Ministry of Health Circular 06/2011/TT-BYT, issued to implement the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive. The important point is that it is not a licence: Article 2(4) states that the receipt number does not certify the product as safe or effective.
How long does the notification take?
Three working days by statute, from receipt of a valid dossier and the fee. Before that, though, sits the work of obtaining the CFS and the letter of authorisation from the manufacturer and completing consular legalisation, and that is where most of the real calendar goes. A deficient dossier draws written notice within five working days, and the notification lapses if it is not corrected within three months.
What does the notification cost?
The state fee is 500,000 VND per dossier, under Ministry of Finance Circular 41/2023/TT-BTC, in force since 1 August 2023. That is the fee paid to the state; document preparation and agency work are separate.
How long is the receipt number valid?
Five years from the date of issue (Article 10). Re-notification has to be filed before it expires and a fresh fee applies.
Are cosmetics duty-free under the Korea-Vietnam FTA?
It depends on the product. Face and skin creams and lotions (HS 3304.99.30) and powders (3304.91) are 0% under VKFTA, but lip make-up (3304.10) and eye make-up (3304.20) are 5%. Claiming the rate requires a Korean-issued form KV certificate of origin on import. VAT of 8% applies on top, through 31 December 2026.
Do I need a local entity?
Not necessarily. You can start with a local distribution partner acting as both importer and notifying entity, which is the realistic starting point for most Korean brands. But the notifying entity has to be qualified to trade cosmetics in Vietnam and carries the Product Information File obligation, so whose name it is in has to be settled at the start.
How do you judge whether the product suits the market?
Against real TikTok Shop and Shopee sales data: what shoppers in the same category actually pay, and which formats sell. If the answer is no, we revisit the range or the price structure before any money goes into notification and freight.
Can I hire you only for Shopee or TikTok Shop onboarding?
Yes. Since products cannot be listed as an accredited seller without the notification in place, we check the registration status first and then decide whether to do onboarding alone or start further back.
Can I see the results myself?
Yes. Shopee and TikTok Shop connect to the SELLi Client app, so units sold, shipments, revenue and conversion are visible in real time.
When should the trademark be registered?
When you decide to enter. Brands do find out after distribution starts that a third party filed first, and at that point it is very hard to undo. Run it in parallel with the notification and customs.

Sources

If you have a product in mind, send the full ingredient list and the manufacturer details. We will check market fit first.

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