APR, which is achieving results in both online and offline markets in the United States, has overtaken Amorepacific to become the K-beauty company with the highest sales in North America. The securities market expects APR, which set this year's sales target at 2.1 trillion won, to generate sales approaching 1 trillion won in North America alone.
According to the industry on the 9th, APR posted sales of 255.1 billion won in North America in the fourth quarter of last year, up 269.7% from a year earlier. During the same period, Amorepacific's North American sales came to 182.6 billion won, up 8.5%.
This is the first time APR has recorded higher quarterly sales than Amorepacific in North America. APR posted annual sales of 1.5273 trillion won last year, with North America accounting for 37%. That is a rise of 15 percentage points compared with 2024 (22%).
An APR official said, "In the fourth quarter last year, we achieved triple-digit quarterly sales growth in North America thanks to strong performance across all online and offline channels," and noted, "This year, we plan to maintain our growth momentum by continuing a global expansion strategy centered on beauty devices and cosmetics."
APR's steep growth in North America is attributed to its online-focused penetration strategy. From the 2014 launch of its first brand, April Skin, Chief Executive Kim Byung-hun of APR moved away from traditional distribution and adopted a direct-to-consumer (D2C) model through its own mall to transact directly with customers. It also focused on promoting products through social networking services (SNS) familiar to younger generations.
APR established a U.S. subsidiary in 2019 and began selling its flagship brands Medicube and April Skin through its U.S. online mall. It has also actively used SNS such as TikTok and Instagram to build local recognition.
APR then entered major U.S. e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, sharply increasing sales. Since 2024, its flagship product "Medicube Zero Pore Pad" has consistently ranked No. 1 in Amazon's cosmetics category, among other achievements.
Having built a solid fandom in the North American online market, APR is also rolling out its offline expansion in phases. A prime example came in April last year, when it signed an exclusive supply contract with Ulta Beauty, the largest beauty distribution chain in the United States, and began selling Medicube skincare products and AGE-R beauty devices. Ulta Beauty operates more than 1,500 offline stores across the United States.
Rather than flooding Ulta Beauty's offline stores with dozens of products from the outset, APR maximized early performance by supplying around 15 core product lines. APR's sales through Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter last year totaled about 16 billion won, and it is targeting 100 billion won this year.
On its fourth-quarter earnings conference call last year, APR said, "As collaboration with Ulta has progressed positively, APR's product displays, though smaller than peer brands, have been gradually expanding in placement and area," and added, "We will soon expand our offline distribution lineup to 20 products."
APR is preparing to enter other offline channels in the United States in step with the end of its exclusive supply contract with Ulta Beauty around the end of the first half of this year. Walmart, Target and Nordstrom are cited as strong candidates.
APR presented an annual sales target of 2.1 trillion won for this year, up about 37% from last year. The securities market estimates APR could generate as much as 1 trillion won in sales in North America alone.
Kwon Woo-jung, a researcher at Kyobo Securities, said, "Medicube is currently growing explosively, causing a global inventory shortage, and capacity (CAPA) expansion is underway at the original design manufacturer (ODM)," and added, "With supply chains normalizing, additional entries into U.S. offline channels and expansion into new regions such as Europe are expected."