[Hipple Hip Item] "Baekgochoryeoed죠"... Amazon No.1 'Joseon Minyeo' Launched in Living Room by Her

Park Yeonju Lotte Home Shopping Beauty MD Interview
Exclusive Launch of Amazon No.1 Sunscreen 'Joseon Minyeo'

"I feel the greatest joy when broadcasting products that are not sold on other channels. I was confident that Chosun Minyeo, as an exclusive product of Lotte Homeshopping, would succeed to the extent that I would be stamping my attendance at the Chosun Minyeo office for hundreds of days."

Park Yeon-ju, MD of the Beauty Division at Lotte Homeshopping, said in an interview with Asia Economy on the 30th of last month at the Lotte Homeshopping headquarters in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, "I worked hard with the thought that Lotte Homeshopping should be the second distribution channel for Chosun Minyeo."

On the 29th, Park Yeon-ju, MD of the Beauty Division, explained the background of the launch of the Joseon Beauty product at the Lotte Home Shopping headquarters in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Lotte Home Shopping]

Chosun Minyeo is a brand better known overseas than domestically. It is a company that modernly reinterprets traditional Korean herbal ingredients to create products. The Clear Rice Sun Cream, made using organic rice and fermented grain extracts, has sold over 10 million units in the global market. It also ranked first in the sun cream category during Amazon's Black Friday in 2022.

This sun cream is praised for not being washed off by water or sweat and for its smooth and moisturizing application, which spread through social media platforms like TikTok, gaining significant attention domestically as well. Chosun Minyeo has only supplied products to the health and beauty (H&B) store Olive Young in Korea. Lotte Homeshopping is its second sales channel.

On the morning of the 12th of last month, Chosun Minyeo's 'Clear Rice Sun Cream' made its debut on Lotte Homeshopping, selling out all 4,000 sets prepared within 25 minutes of the broadcast, achieving what can be called a 'blockbuster hit.' The number of orders per minute was about three times higher compared to sun cream sales on Lotte Homeshopping over the past month. The response to the product after the broadcast was explosive. Accordingly, Lotte Homeshopping plans to sell twice the amount of stock in the second broadcast on the 1st compared to the first.

Park Yeon-ju MD recalled that the launch process of Chosun Minyeo was the most tense and challenging experience in her 10-year career as a home shopping MD.

Park MD's interest in Chosun Minyeo began last summer. Usually more interested in world affairs than entertainment or sports news, Park was intrigued by the frequent appearance of the term 'K-Beauty.' The brand that caught her attention was Chosun Minyeo. While domestic cosmetics companies typically expand sales regions to Japan, China, and other Asian countries, Chosun Minyeo stood out for selling thousands of sun creams in the United States, a market considered a barren land.

Park MD explained, "It was attractive that the brand is famous overseas but not well known to the public here," and added, "With outdoor activities increasing after COVID-19, I thought sun care products could sell even more in the future."

On the 29th, Park Yeon-ju, MD of the Beauty Division, explained the background of the launch of the Joseon Beauty product at the Lotte Home Shopping headquarters in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Lotte Home Shopping]

From that point, Park MD began working earnestly to establish a relationship with Chosun Minyeo. After contacting their customer center to express her desire to sell the products, she persuaded many people within her company that Chosun Minyeo products should be brought in.

However, the process was not as smooth as expected. Typically, it takes 3 to 4 months from product meetings to sales in home shopping, but it took more than half a year before Chosun Minyeo was broadcast.

Chosun Minyeo initially rejected Park MD's proposal outright. But she was determined not to give up and visited the company daily for four months as if going to work. To differentiate from other distribution channels, she proposed selling the products through direct purchase without lowering their value. Direct purchase means Lotte Homeshopping buys the products directly, stores them in their warehouse, and sells them, so if the products do not perform well, they bear all the inventory risk.

Park MD said, "There were many concerns within the company about bringing in products through direct purchase," and added, "I appealed to the decision-makers that we must bring in this product even if it means direct purchase."

Park MD said she wants to introduce exclusive products like Chosun Minyeo at reasonable prices to let more consumers know about more brands. Recently, she exclusively launched the 'Sibasan' product, used in over 1,700 esthetic centers nationwide as a management product, and expanded the line with 'Vitamin' products. These products have achieved sales exceeding 170% of the target, becoming key products for Lotte Homeshopping. Park MD said, "I think about what products only I can do every day and keep asking why," and added, "For Chosun Minyeo, we plan to create and launch exclusive basic skincare products for home shopping around autumn and winter."