The brand entered Indonesia in May through the e-commerce platform Shopee. It also has an online presence in China, Japan, Singapore and US, the latter with an offline store.
Sue Kim, manager of the global business department, told CosmeticsDesign-Asia that the Indonesia market had a keen interest and demand for Korean cosmetics.
“Indonesia is the one of the countries that has great interest in Korea culture since 10 years ago. The demand of Korean cosmetic has also been gradually increasing as K-beauty, K-drama and K-pop have been influencing consumers purchase behaviours.”
Kim added that many Korean brands had caught on the trend and expanded overseas. “Through this trend, many Korean brands shifted to global marketplace and we also wanted to test the possibility in the Indonesian market.”
Kim told us that the brand was on the lookout for other potential markets for expansion: “The goal is to identify the demands of local consumers and build our own strength of brand foundation. In the mid to long term, we plan to reach the Middle East and European customers.”
Sun and natural
According to Kim, sun care and natural skincare products are popular among its Indonesian consumers.
“Indonesia has a high demand for sun care products due to hot, humid and UV-resistant climate.”
She said its glacial water sun cushion product had been selling well, which she attributes to its innovative application. It is essentially a sunscreen in the form of cushion foundation and stands out for its portability.
“(It) is a product that not only has a strong UV protection effect, but also can be applied with it anytime, anywhere and temporarily lowering the temperature of the hot skin. These characteristics were new and fresh to Indonesian consumers.”
In addition to sun care products, Kim said there was a rising demand for cosmetics with natural ingredients.
She cited one of VELY VELY’s products, the dermagood green cushion which was targeted for people with sensitive skin. “It contains natural and soothing ingredients like clean bamboo water, centella asiatica extract, Eoseongcho (Houttuynia cordata) extract and six herbal flower complexes.”
Although it was targeted for sensitive skin, Kim said: “It is a product that meets the needs of Indonesian consumers who value the natural ingredients and stability.”
As Indonesia is a majority Muslim country, Kim said “depending on the growth of our Indonesian business, we may plan to obtain the Halal certification.”
Home market
In its home market, Kim said its hypoallergenic line, dermagood was also popular for helping soothe and care for sensitive and stressed skin.
Other top-selling products include its skincare line, Artemisia which had sold 400,000 units last year.
VELY VELY’s products are available online, as well as its flagship store and drugs stores like Olive Young.
Kim told us as of May this year, its e-commerce sales grew more than 250% year-on-year and the firm expects this to increase to 400% by the second half of the year.
VELY VELY’s products are manufactured locally in South Korea. Asked if there was any impact on its supply chain as the country was one of the first affected in the wake of the pandemic, Kim said: “Luckily, our brand is mostly produced domestically so Covid-19 did not disrupt our supply chain. However, to assure our customers, our manufacturer had put in place a tighter quarantine system to combat the epidemic.”
