Musinsa Beauty has begun a new experiment to work with pharmacies through offline stores. Musinsa Beauty said on Sept. 10 it will open its first standalone offline store, “Musinsa Beauty Hongdae,” in Seoul’s Hongdae district on Sept. 11.

The store spans four floors from basement level 1 to ground level 3, covering about 400 pyeong. It will house about 12,000 products from 870 brands. The concept reflects Hongdae’s commercial area, which has many foreign tourists and heavy foot traffic among people in their 20s and 30s.

Basement level 1 will house “Beauty Onnuri Pharmacy,” a K-beauty-focused pharmacy spanning 176 square metres. A “pharmacy beauty” strategy that curates high-function cosmetics and inner beauty products based on the expertise of pharmacies and pharmacists will be introduced there for the first time. Musinsa Beauty is the first in the retail industry to try this strategy. Beauty Onnuri Pharmacy will handle about 2,000 products from 270 brands, linking curation zones by concern such as hair and scalp or acne and skin trouble with one-on-one consultations with pharmacists.

Ground levels 1 and 2 are divided into makeup, fragrance and skincare. With the aim of highlighting K-beauty brands with strong growth potential, about 70 percent of the roughly 600 brands on the above-ground floors are indie brands. On the first floor, C-beauty brands Into You and AZTK will open in South Korea for the first time, while France’s niche perfume brand Etat Libre d’Orange and South Korean niche perfume brand Selvatigo will also open as stand-alone offerings.

The second floor is filled with skincare and hair, body, men’s and dental care products. It will also operate a “Next Beauty Zone” introducing new brands and a “Musinsa Beauty Ranking Zone” based on online sales data. The third floor includes an unmanned robot cafe, “Azhnyseom,” and an outdoor terrace.

Musinsa Beauty plans to push as core strengths mutual customer traffic between fashion and beauty, enhanced expertise through pharmacy beauty, and brand incubation linked online and offline, starting with the Hongdae store. It plans to discover emerging K-beauty brands and expand offline touchpoints.

A Musinsa Beauty official said, “Starting from Musinsa Beauty Hongdae, we have secured Musinsa Beauty’s three key competitive strengths: a customer base connecting fashion and beauty, expertise through pharmacy beauty, and the discovery and nurturing of brands linked online and offline.” The official added, “Based on this, we will establish ourselves as a platform where K-beauty brands with high growth potential create new growth opportunities.”