Interview: Geonsik Shin on how Anua is redefining K-Beauty for a new generation

Introduction: Since its launch in 2019, Anua (The Founders Inc.) has achieved remarkable momentum, expanding into more than 160 markets and recording annual growth of +250%. Travel retail now plays a pivotal role in this trajectory, offering powerful brand visibility and a stage to translate Anua’s ‘customer obsession’ ethos into differentiated product offerings.

In this interview, The Founders Inc Head of Global Sales Geonsik Shin discusses the brand’s ambitions to expand at key hub airports across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the USA. He discusses the commitment to building travel-exclusive formats and gifting propositions; and how it uses data-driven insights to refine assortments by region.

He also talks about how Anua has leveraged the power of social media to help it connect with Gen Z travellers.

At the heart of Anua’s approach lies education and storytelling, using its Korean heritage and double-cleansing philosophy to inspire travellers while building lasting brand equity in the channel.

Anua has grown steadily since 2019. How do you see travel retail contributing to this global momentum?

Travel retail represents the most direct touchpoint with consumers and serves as a powerful channel where brand experiences can spread globally. It allows customers who are already aware of Anua to truly touch and feel our products in person. In most cases, only brands with significant growth and recognition are able to enter the travel retail channel, so Anua’s presence in this space is meaningful in itself.

What are your priorities in terms of geography, retailer and channel type as you expand in travel retail?

We are prioritising expansion at major hub airports in markets where Anua is already demonstrating strong performance in the domestic channel. From a sales perspective, Japan and the United States represent our largest markets. In terms of brand penetration, the UK is also emerging as a key growth market.

Beyond that, we are expanding our business through leading retailers and platforms across Europe, the Middle East and India. Naturally, our travel retail strategy places hub airports in these regions at the top of our priorities.

Anua is built on a philosophy of ‘customer obsession’, where product development is driven by real consumer feedback. How will you translate this philosophy into the travel retail space?

At Anua, we closely analyse the consumer journey and integrate those insights into our product development process. In travel retail, however, it is structurally more challenging to capture consumer purchasing and search patterns in the same level of detail as on online platforms. That said, it is well known that many travel retail shoppers either purchase well-established products with strong awareness or seek out attractive items suited to their travel occasions.

We are currently testing which product assortments and promotions work most effectively in Korean duty-free stores; while gathering consumer feedback from around the world to ensure we continue to reflect customer needs.

You are developing travel-exclusive products to differentiate duty-free from downtown retail. Can you share more about the types of innovations and formats travellers can expect from Anua in this space?

In travel retail, exclusive product assortments typically centre around large-volume bundle sets of bestsellers or convenient trial kits. These formats offer strong value through savings and larger sizes compared with downtown retail and Anua will adopt a similar approach as a foundation.

In addition, we plan to differentiate further by introducing gifts with purchase and attractively priced gift sets that can only be found in duty free, creating offerings that are especially appealing for travellers seeking both value and gifting options.

How important will education and storytelling be to familiarise travellers with these rituals and your Korean beauty heritage?

With the global rise of K-pop and K-dramas, many consumers have become captivated by the glowing skin of Korean idols and actors. This has fuelled strong interest in Korean beauty routines and heritage with education and storytelling spreading rapidly through social media.

In travel retail, we believe it is important to build on this momentum by not only highlighting everyday routines but also introducing tailored beauty rituals for travel contexts – such as in-flight skincare or vacation skincare routines – to better engage and inspire travellers.

Can you tell us more about how Anua is leveraging partnerships with data platforms such as Syncly to better understand customer insights? How can this data-driven approach help refine your travel retail strategy across different regions?

We are giving careful thought to the product assortments most preferred in each region. Ultimately, in order to deliver the right products at the right time, data is essential. As we accumulate and refine this data internally, we see great potential to apply it effectively within travel retail. For example, by analysing the nationality mix within inbound and outbound traffic at specific airports, we can fine-tune regional duty-free strategies to better align with traveller demand.

TikTok and social media have been pivotal in building Anua’s connection with Gen Z consumers, particularly with the hashtag #Anuacleansingoil generating over 300 million views. How do you plan to leverage your social media presence to engage with the travelling consumer?

We intend to maximise the use of Anua’s official social media channels while also creating additional touchpoints to showcase our brand strengths and gather valuable consumer feedback.

In travel retail, while online engagement is important, maintaining a strong offline presence is equally critical. For this reason, we plan to place greater focus on strengthening our visibility in physical duty-free spaces, exploring ways to enhance brand exposure and connect more effectively with traveling consumers.

Finally, what is your long-term vision for Anua in travel retail and what are your biggest priorities for the year ahead?

In the long term, our goal is to create a sense of distinctiveness for Anua that travellers can experience exclusively in travel retail. Over the next year, our top priority will be to enter and expand primarily at hub airports in countries where our local business is already strong. ✈