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| AmorePacific's headquarters in Yongsan, Seoul / Korea times file |
By Kim Jae-heun
AmorePacific will close all its Innisfree skincare brand stores in North America as of Saturday, the local cosmetics giant said Friday.
The company revealed its decision to exit the North American market during a conference call last December; and it shuttered 10 stores in the United States in February.
In Canada, the cosmetics firm has already shut two stores ― in the CF Toronto Eaton Centre and CF Markville Mall ― and will close two more ― in the Yorkdale Shopping Centre and Scarborough Town Centre ― by Saturday.
"We opened our first Innisfree store in Canada to introduce updated K-beauty products there, but due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation, we have decided to close down our shops," an AmorePacific official said, adding the company will still its products through Sephora, an online cosmetics platform.
Innisfree opened its first store in New York in September 2017.
The skincare brand's popularity is also fading in the Chinese market. After entering the market in 2012, Innisfree flourished, operating over 600 stores there, half of which were directly managed by the headquarters.
However, Chinese customers moved on to seek either luxury or cost-effective brands and began shunning mid-priced products. Political conflict between South Korea and China, caused by the government's decision to allow the deployment of a THAAD American anti-ballistic missile defense system in 2016, also had a major impact on the brand.
But following a peak in sales around that time, through until the end of last year, Innisfree has had to close 140 stores there and will shut 170 more this year.
AmorePacific said the emergence of health and beauty stores and an increase in demand in online shopping has brought about a decline in sales at bricks and mortar shops. Innisfree's revenue reached 770 billion won in 2016 but it more than halved to 348.6 billion as of 2020.
The cosmetics giant said it will focus on digitization and strengthening its brands this year. Instead of expanding its number of physical shops, AmorePacific has established a global e-commerce division and sells its products through online cosmetics platforms operated by Amazon, Sephora and Shopee.
The company aims to increase its e-commerce sales in China from 40 percent to 50 percent of total sales; and will also sell its products in Europe and North American through the platforms.
