Our target is more than 30 stores by 2020. And we will bring new category and technology in our stores to attract customers like VR experience room: Doyoul Lee

How do you see organized beauty retailing growing in India? Kindly shed light on journey of your brand so far ?

While doing business in India during the past few years, I am always surprised at rapid growth in modern beauty retail industry and I believe it will continue to develop very fast for the next 10 years, and more. That`s why every global companies want to enter into Indian market. As same as other global brand, Innisfree, also came to India to catch a huge opportunity. For the first time, we focused on learning and understanding Indian market. And from 2016, we started to extend our offline stores and online stores as well. So far, we have 5 offline stores and 1 online store, and will launch 3 offline stores within this year. We are also preparing the expansion for other mega cities like Bengaluru & Chennai. I hope we will launch in major cities in India by 2020.

Kindly shed light on your current retail footprint. What are the strategies to scale-up the same? Would you opt for franchise route for brand expansion?

Until now, we are operating our own stores to show our brand to Indian customers properly. But here in India is too huge country. So I think we need another business model. That is online channel which is growing so dramatically. Within few years, this two model will be our main route. But in the future, to enter tier 2 cities, probably we can consider franchise route for expansion.

Innisfree is positioned as premium brand. Premium category in India has already become crowded with so many international brands. How Innisfree stand out to other brands also shed light on your estimated market share in this category?

Yes. Every international brands are already working here, and coming constantly. I think we have unique point comparing to other brands. We are a naturalism brand that shares the benefits of nature from pristine island of jeju allowing vibrant beauty and pursues an eco friendly green life to preserve the balance of nature. This point is suitable for Indian customers who love nature. And as K-Beauty is becoming well known for Indian customers, Innisfree also will grow accordingly. Regarding market share, Innisfree is one of Top 10 brands in Nykaa.com which is no.1 beauty online platform.

Who do you see as your potential competition in the same space?

All brands either local or international, are our competitors. Especially, Ayurdic brands are very famous in India, and showing huge growth. But I want to keep our step to forward ourselves. We just started.

Presently, how many categories are operational with the brand also shed light on your best performing category?

Presently we have Skincare as the largest category under Innisfree followed by Makeup, Body, Hair and Men care and we are launching Fragrance category also in last quater of the year. Skincare is the best category under Innisfree which works well, under the same our Mask Sheets, Green Tea Range, Volcanic Pore Range, Orchid Range are the amongst the best ranges. The best sellers are Green Tea Seed Serum, Super Volcanic Pore Clay Mask, Orchid Enriched cream and My Cushion Foundation.

Is the brand mulling to launch any new product or category?

Yes, we are planning to launch fragrance as a new category in India by the end of this year. As far as new products are concerned we are coming up with premium product ranges like Black Green Tea Range and Pomegranate Range in coming months.

Also shed light on your consumer’s profile? What kind of age group is your target?

Innisfree’s core target age category is 20 to 35 women. Consumer profile is young, smart and who believes in nature and eco friendly products.

The brand is operational in men as well as women’s category. Where do you see maximum traction?

The maximum traction is towards women’s category for sure. Women in India have started taking care of their skin and looks for natural products to be applied. When women visits our store, lot of them get to know about the K-beauty regime (10 step regime) as informed by our Greenus by which they get really impressed and try to buy the full regime to take care of their skin. Women in India are also amazed by the concept of Mask sheets & Cushion Foundations.

What is your strategy on online business? What percentage of sale is generated from online channel?

Innisfree is presently available on Nykaa.com only. Our sale on Nykaa has been increasing tremendously. In fact, we have seen double growth in the past 6 months on Nykaa. It is a great platform for new beauty brands entering in India. Till now Nykaa is one of the biggest online sales channel for Innisfree.

At last, mention the growth plans of the brand?

We will accelerate to expand our stores into major mega cities while launch more online shopping malls. Our target is more than 30 stores by 2020. And we will bring new category and technology in our stores to attract customers like VR experience room. I want to show more amazing brand value.