On October 5, innisfree opened its second flagship store and third New York-area store on Lexington Avenue & 59th street. Over 500 people lined up starting in the early morning to get a first peek at the new design and access to exclusive opening offers.

  This second flagship features a unique design created by the innisfree HQ Store Design team in partnership with NY-based design and architectural firm, Mapos, while the US local team helped support the operational implementation. The new store was inspired by New York City – a place where natural and urban settings coexist in harmony. In addition to the brand’s signature living green wall reminiscent of its own Jeju Island green tea fields, there is also a “recharge” area where visitors can relax with a cold drink while charging their phone. Skincare and makeup classes will be held twice a week on the store’s second floor – known as the Green Mezzanine.

  “After the opening of our first NY flagship in Union Square which was designed as an Urban Oasis, we are looking forward to showing another side of innisfree with the Lexington design. The signature visual element is a central floating bar in the shape of Jeju Island which will be a sensorial discovery of our five main skincare ingredients and an interactive display to learn more about innisfree’s sustainable actions with our local US partners – reforestation with the Arbor Day Foundation and packaging recycling with Terracycle.” said Julien Bouzitat, Vice President and head of innisfree USA.

  The Lexington store is perfectly located in the high-traffic Upper East Side of Manhattan, surrounded by fast fashion brands Zara and H&M as well as beauty mecca Sephora and across the street from the iconic Bloomingdale’s Department Store. It allows the store to attract more affluent and slightly older customers to the natural K-beauty world of innisfree.

  In order to amplify social media buzz on the store’s opening and create national brand awareness, a series of influencer-led events have been held. In addition to traditional KOL and Beauty Editors store visits, over 70 micro influencers from the Ipsy beauty network attended introduction to K-beauty classes in our new Greenhouse Mezzanine, Allure and Buzzfeed’s beauty editors held a K-make up live stream masterclass and we wrapped up the festivities with a meet and greet featuring mega influencer Christen Dominique (followers: 4M YouTube, 1.4M IG).

  On October 13-14, innisfree also participated to the Ipsy Gen Beauty NYC event at Javits Center, which was an opportunity to reach more than 8,000 beauty-obsessed millennials and 600 micro influencers through mass sampling and digital activations. Adapted from the global concept, the Green Tea Hydration Station booth conveyed our Jeju Island brand story-telling and green tea expertise through a playful and engaging experience, with hydration pumps dispensing the formula of our best-selling Intensive Hydrating Serum with green tea seed and a fun photobooth.

  Ahead of the event, over 350 attendees came to the Union Square Flagship store to pre-register, generating a boost of traffic and sales through an immersive discovery of the brand.
innisfree USA will wrap up the year maximizing the busy holiday season with three stores in the New York area and an optimized website. Next year, the brand plans to accelerate its offline expansion and enter the West Coast with the opening of its first store in Los Angeles in Q1.