Korean startup Beauty Selection, which runs an influencer commerce platform, has attracted 11 billion won ($8.1 million) in Series A investment. This investment was led by Altos Ventures, with leading domestic and foreign investors such as Red Badge Pacific.
Altos Ventures is a Korean- American venture capital called a ‘unicorn maker’ for its leading early investments in companies like the Woowa Brothers, Krafton, Socar, and Toss. Red Badge Pacific is a global cross-border investment company with branches in major cities such as New York and Singapore, leading the connection between domestic and foreign companies.
Beauty Selection is a lifestyle commerce brand company established in February 2020 by CEO Jaebin Park. It operates based on two-way communication with consumers through collaboration with influencers and has its beauty, health, functional food, and fashion brands. At the same time, it is also a brand aggregator that acquires and grows high-end brands.
Beauty Market tries to overcome the structural limitations of the existing market through two-way communication and reciprocity, which are the pure functions of SNS. By overturning the current distribution method delivered from the supplier to the consumer, it established a technique that starts from the consumer and is given to the consumer.
Incoming consumer needs, such as desired products, efficacy, and dissatisfaction with existing products, are actively incorporated into products through their brands and acquisition companies. Based on the bond between influencers and followers, influencers are given the role of listening and talking about consumers’ disappointments rather than product advertisements.
This method has been well-received by consumers. From 2020 to the present, the average customer price is 100,000 won, the average repurchase rate is 80 %, and the return rate is 0.2 %, an unusual customer index in the commerce industry.
Park Jae-bin, CEO of Beauty Selection, said, “The problem with the existing influencer commerce is that it relies on individual fame to sell despite its lack of product power. We decided to remove only the problem by paying attention to the problem”. He continued, “We plan to use more than 10 billion won of this investment to recruit talent and acquire brand companies. We plan to focus on realizing a new consumer-oriented commerce paradigm.”
Altos Ventures Partner Kyungchan Song, who led this investment, said, “With the diversification of SNS and digital advertising, customers are no longer paying attention to the new commerce market, where customers purchase products with trust in influencers, rather than offline stores or famous brands. Beauty Selection creates a virtuous cycle of quickly accepting customer feedback and improving product quality through close cooperation with an exclusive influencer network. This creates a ‘reliable structure’ in the relatively devalued influencer commerce market.”
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