Strengthening retail power for greater customer satisfaction is a critical task for the success of AMOREPACIFIC Group's transformation as a Great Global Brand Company. That's why the Group Retail Strategy Team in HQ was set up in October 2014 to build up the foundation for sustainable growth in the global market. Here we meet the Group Retail Strategy Team and discuss their innovative goals, vision and winning formula that work across the world.

The Group Retail Strategy Team is committed to strengthening AMOREPACIFIC Group's retail power. As part of its efforts, it has undertaken bold and innovative moves in ARITAUM, innisfree, ETUDE HOUSE, eSpoir and other brand channels in Korea.

"AMOREPACIFIC has made impressive achievements since it began retail business in 2005. The role of our team is to take its performance to another level by acting on two keywords: digital and global."

Choi Byoung-joo, the leader of Group Retail Strategy Team, spoke of the team's aspiration. When the team was first organized, it selected five core retail capabilities: "Location" of stores and networks, "Merchandising (MD)," "CRM (Customer Relationship Management) & Promotion," "People," which refer to human resources, and "Store Operation." The team sets up and works toward goals in each area of its five core capabilities.

First, "Location" is critical for starting a business. It's a question of where to open a store. To answer this question, the team set up Winning Formula that works worldwide. Winning Formula provides guidelines about commercial area, location and a proven economic model for building optimized networks specific to each region. It's an essential part of strengthening the retail power. Second, "MD" is largely divided into category management and shopper insight. For category management, the team began making format-specific MD guidelines this year. It selects a store of each brand as reference and analyzes the sales to identify the best store location. The team devises ways of categorizing and effectively displaying products based on product analysis. For shopper insight, the team puts in place countermeasures based on thorough customer research, both present and potential, including those who visit stores but don't purchase anything. Mobile sensors are now installed in 300 stores in Korea to obtain data and thus better understand and analyze customers. Third is "CRM & Promotion." The team sought ways to strengthen the relationship with customers so that they continue to come into the store. It also gave brilliant ideas to make stores more customer-friendly. For example, ARITAUM improved its VIP membership program to be more efficient and customer-oriented, which has directly contributed to the successful operation of stores. The fourth is "People." The team introduces strategies that help sales representatives, sales managers for partner companies and BAs at contact points develop their sales skills and abilities to run and manage stores. At the same time, the team provides support to members of the sales force working on site to coach and develop others as well. The fifth is "Store Operation." It encompasses the work of inventory management and overall store operation. Last year, the team focused on handling store inventory and costs. It plans to create an environment in which decisions can be made quickly in store using a system that automatically places an order according to the flow of inventory data and manages profit and loss in batches.

Last year, the team as primarily concentrated on laying down basic principles, particularly for store location and network, while this year it will focus on operation, data collection and channel network.

"AMOREPACIFIC is well regarded in the market as a company engaged in both retail and manufacturing of cosmetics. We're proud of the new path AMOREPACIFIC is paving that none has discovered. But, we must challenge ourselves to greater heights instead of being complacent with what we have done."

Stores are where retail power is truly revealed and they are particularly important for the business of AMOREPACIFIC. As strategies distinguished from old traditions are the key to survival and leadership of the ever changing retail field, members of the Group Retail Strategy Team are not afraid of trying something new.

"The biggest problem we had was the lack of data for analysis. But thanks to brand MD managers, we were able to collect vast amounts of data and so understand what's happening in stores. We're now working on developing new analysis tools that are essential for understanding the presence of our stores around the globe and managing them well. We aim to strengthen our retail power and build up a digital foundation, which are two great tasks that inspire and reward us in equal measure."

The Group Retail Strategy Team primarily works on changing and improving old-fashioned methods. It explores and suggests new things for innovation while managing the many small and big communication problems that this inevitably triggers with managers on the ground.

"Trying something innovative involves conflicts with old process and ways of working. We solve this problem through active and continuous communication with members on site, rather than forcing them to accept our suggestions."

Everyone feels uncomfortable and worries when they start something that they've never done before and so did the Group Retail Strategy Team when it was first organized. But, it understood which direction it should go and worked together with other related departments toward a common goal. That's how the team brought about such significant change. There were many difficulties, but through continuous communication and its harmonious relationships with other departments, it produced good results.

Each and every member of the Group Retail Strategy Team devours everything they could find to keep up to date with the latest trends in the rapidly changing retail market and tirelessly works to develop existing capabilities. They also share and discuss the progress of each project through a weekly meeting to identify the best solutions.

"Getting absorbed in our work can narrow our viewpoint. The retail market always changes and because of that, we have to take a step backward, rather than being consumed by our work if we are to see the full picture and do our work more wisely. Our view is sometimes not good enough to understand the whole market and trends. That's why we meet and listen to experts from outside to make up for what we may otherwise miss."

The Group Retail Strategy Team works to design the best solution for customers to not just sell products, but heighten their satisfaction. Its adventurous forward-looking works continues apace to establish the basic principles of AMOREPACIFIC going global and bringing about innovation to foster skilled people capable of fulfilling customer needs. The Group Retail Strategy Team has a frontier spirit that's the strongest supporter in devising the best and wisest way to spread Asian beauty around the world and design the future vision of AMOREPACIFIC.