A customer looks at Laneige on display at Shephora online cosmetics shop, one of the 22 online cosmetics shops in New York that displays the AmorePacific product.

A view of the milling customers at a shop for Innisfree in New York opened recently by AmorePacific, a Korean cosmetics giant to make inroads into the U.S. cosmetics market.

AmorePacific, the “four-star general” in the cosmetics industry, won the $300 Million Export Tower Award from the Korea International Trade Association in December for its excellent performance in exports.

The cosmetics giant exported $385.350 million worth of its cosmetics abroad from July, 2016 to July 2017, according the Korea Customs Service. Its shipment of the cosmetics were made evenly to a number of its key market countries like the U.S., Japan, Vietnam, and others, with the expansion of the exports the strongest to the U.S.

This year, the company plans to step up its export drive stronger than in the past years, especially to ASEAN, North America and Europe, to diversify its dependence on China. The cosmetics maker will push five of its best products for exports around the world this year, including Sulhwasoo, Laneige, Mamond, Innisfree, and Etudehouse, with special emphasis on markets in Asia and North America. 

One of the most critical areas in the world for AmorePacific products is ASEAN, where many of its products are being sold. From last year, the company began expanding the number of the shops in the region. Three new outlets were opened in Indonesia last year. The third was especially successful, as customers formed long lines to enter the Innisfree store.

Etudehouse opened its first flagship store in Malaysia last August, named the Sunway Piramid with Mamond. Another store is located in Orchard Road, a key commercial district in Singapore, in November, called Mamond Boutique. In April, the company is scheduled to follow the five best brands to open a store called Hera in ASEAN, a beachhead for the region for cosmetics products.

Laneige has been a product the company has pushed hard in North America. In June, the product was listed on the Shepora online beauty shop. Laneige is listed on 22 online stores in New York, 36 in California, and others totaling 144 online shops across the U.S. In September, a flagship store for Innisfree is scheduled to be opened in New York, the first step for the cosmetics product’s assault in mainland U.S. Many customers awaited the opening of the shop on the second floor of the Union Square building, where many cosmetics shops do business.

AmorePacific aims to be a Global Top 10 cosmetics company. While tapping matured and developed markets such as North America and Western Europe, AmorePacific is more focusing on developing countries such as China and other Southeast Asian countries.

To overcome the limitations of the market size and increasing level of competition in the domestic market and accomplish economies of scale through market expansion with its own line of competitive products, AmorePacific , utilizing its number one position in the domestic market, has been looking to develop overseas market with in its efforts to gain presence and become a successful international player in a very competitive global cosmetics industry environment.