Amorepacific Criticized By Innisfree Franchisees For Unfair Marketing

Major beauty company Amorepacific faced an angry group of Innisfree franchise owners on Wednesday, as the brand's struggling sellers blamed the flawed marketing for their declining sales.

Some 70 franchisees protested in front of Amorepacific's headquarters in Seoul's Yongsan District, demanding that the company provide more practical business support and stop giving greater marketing benefits to multi-brand shopping (MBS) channels than to their offline franchise stores. Innisfree's annual sales have steadily declined over the past few years, dropping from 552 billion won ($377 million) in 2019 to 225 billion won last year.

The frustrated sellers said Amorepacific has been giving more support to the country's major MBS platforms that carry Innisfree products — including CJ Olive Young, Coupang and Naver Store — over their stores. They claimed that the company, ⁘through such unfair measures, has discriminated against their offline franchise businesses.⁘

The franchisees said that Innisfree's Perfect Intensive Skincare set, which includes five items, sells on Coupang, the country's largest e-commerce platform, for 32,130 won. Amorepacific supplies the same product to their offline stores for 40,700 won — about 20 percent more expensive, forcing retailers to raise prices even further to make a profit.