[THE INVESTOR] Innisfree, a budget cosmetics brand of Korean beauty giant Amorepacific, on July 18 announce that it has jointly opened a new store in Hangzhou with Alibaba’s online e-commerce platform operator Tmall.

The launch of the new store came after the Chinese e-commerce giant announced its plan to support Korean companies, especially cosmetics firms like Innisfree, to further expand their presence in its home market.

The Chinese firm emphasized that customers can try the cosmetics products before buying at its new stores. Moreover, it is also possible for consumers to test the product at its offline store and make a purchase on Tmall website by scanning QR codes that are placed beside the products.

“The new store is meaningful because it is the first in beauty industry to provide an interactive shopping environment through our new retail strategy and big data technology,” Tmall official Mike Hu said in a statement.

Hu also added that the company decided to work with Innisfree first among other beauty brands due to its outstanding sales performance on Tmall. “Innisfree is the only Korean brand that reached more than 1 billion yuan (US$147.56 million) in sales on our platform,” Hu said.

Moreover, Tmall said it will collect customer data at Innisfree’s 61 existing stores in Shanghai and Hangzhou, through its Tmall istore program and provide the results to Korean company to use for its marketing strategy.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)