Amorepacific's Tough Survival Collaboration... Partnering with Tmall, Naver, and 11st

Shift to E-commerce-Centered Management Strategy... A Bold Move for Structural Improvement
Greatest Sense of Management Crisis Since Establishment... A Surge of Diverse Collaborations

Laneige C-Nergy Boosting Ampoule.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] Amorepacific Group is strengthening various collaborative activities across both offline and online channels. This comes amid the company's largest management crisis since its founding, based on the judgment that only strategic collaboration can overcome the poor performance. Amorepacific Group's survival-driven collaborations are actively unfolding both domestically and internationally.

According to Amorepacific Group on the 9th, Amorepacific has set an internal strategy to further strengthen strategic collaboration with Alibaba Group this year. Since establishing the 'Amorepacific X TMIC Innovation Plant' in collaboration with Alibaba Group last December, they have been closely cooperating in the overall process including the development and distribution of products specialized for the Chinese market. Through the Tmall Innovation Center, Amorepacific receives optimized data for product development and marketing strategies targeting Chinese consumers, and based on this, they have been launching Tmall-exclusive products reflecting Chinese consumer needs, achieving results. So far, products such as Innisfree Pore Perfection Essence, Laneige C-Nergy Boosting Ampoule, and Mamonde Plus Minus Ampoule have been released. Local products were launched in line with the Laneige & Innisfree Tmall Super Brand Day event, and live broadcast sales were conducted using Mamonde Tmall events and influencers, achieving success. An Amorepacific Group official explained, "Due to the good results of strategic collaboration, additional products from Laneige, Mamonde, Ryo, and Innisfree are planned to be launched within the year."

The actual results are remarkable. On the 18th of last month, at the Tmall Shopping Festival, Sulwhasoo surpassed 100 million yuan in sales within 5 minutes on the first day of pre-orders, and the sales rate of all Sulwhasoo products reached 142% compared to the previous year. Hera's sales rate increased by 246%, with over 10,000 units of Black Cushion sold. IOPE and Ryo also gained popularity. IOPE Bio Essence sold 30,000 units, and Ryo's Nourishing Shampoo sold 140,000 units. The sales rates of all IOPE and Ryo products increased by 221% and 114%, respectively.

In February, a business partnership was established with Indonesia's largest distribution company, MAP Group. The reason for targeting the Indonesian market is to further strengthen performance in the global market, especially in the Asia-Pacific market, which includes China and ASEAN. Among the Asia-Pacific markets, Indonesia currently boasts the world's 4th largest population and a massive cosmetics market size of approximately 6.48 trillion KRW (2018). Euromonitor predicted the market size to reach about 11.45 trillion KRW in 2023.

MAP Group is a major Indonesian distribution company that owns local operating rights for global distribution channels such as SOGO, Galeries Lafayette, Sephora, and global brands like Starbucks and Zara, operating about 2,300 stores in over 70 cities in Indonesia. An Amorepacific Group official stated, "We will continue to showcase products from major global brands such as Sulwhasoo, Laneige, Innisfree, and Etude House through MAP Group's road shops, department stores, and drugstores."

Siyeonu.

In the domestic market as well, Amorepacific is partnering with various companies for survival. The most recent collaboration systems were established with Naver, 11st, and Coupang. First, with Naver, they agreed to closely cooperate on synergy enhancement linking online and offline distribution, data-driven new brand and product development, and joint overseas market entry. By linking the B2B platform, a work collaboration tool, they aim to improve work efficiency for employees of both companies and strengthen cooperation for customer experience innovation by jointly developing a global beauty platform for global customers.

They also established a collaboration system with 11st. Accordingly, they plan to enhance customer benefits by utilizing 11st's customer purchase data analysis to sophisticate major brand campaign exhibitions, expanding 11st's 'Same-day Shipping' service, and participating in VIP specialty stores. Additionally, various strategic promotions such as online pre-launch of planned new products and strengthening live commerce activities for best-selling products will be conducted together. On Coupang, the new brand 'Enough Project' was launched exclusively, with plans to expand to other shopping malls in the future.

Collaboration with offline companies such as Lotte Department Store and Lotte Duty Free is also actively continuing. Last month, an 'Amore Store' was opened at Lotte Department Store Cheongnyangni branch. The approximately 165㎡ (50 pyeong) Amore Store sells about 1,400 products from Amorepacific's representative brands such as Sulwhasoo, Hera, and Primera. In January, Amorepacific jointly developed and launched a new luxury skincare brand SIENU with Lotte Duty Free.

An industry insider said, "Amorepacific Group, which has been focused on offline (franchise and direct sales) operations, is showing a major management strategy change by partnering with various online platform companies and launching products, because it cannot go against the trend," adding, "Since the stage has already shifted to e-commerce, more active collaboration is expected to continue."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.