(Innisfree official website)

South Korea’s cosmetic brands are offering almost year-long “discount campaigns,” but consumers do not feel substantial benefits due to the continued increases of official prices, industry sources said. 

A host of cosmetic companies have raised the official prices for their major products by as much as 54 percent this year alone. Such steep increases in the official prices offset the benefit of discount programs, distorting the pricing mechanism of the industry.

“Cosmetic brands are competitively promoting sales or ‘1+1’ events. However, the increase in the official price means the discounted prices are almost the same as the original price,” industry sources said. 

MISSHA, for instance, sold its “M Air Fit Lip Rouge” for 7,800 won in 2012, but increased the price to 11,800 won this year. The product is among the items on sale with a 20 percent discount. Innisfree recently hiked the price for its popular product “Olive Real Eye Cream” to 20,000 won, up from 13,000 won last year. 

Jin Eun-soo, Intern Reporter
(janna924@heraldcorp.com)

(The Face Shop official websit)