The Secret of Hongdae Pharmacy Where Foreigners Flock for Cosmetics
Located at the 8th exit of Hongik University Station on Subway Line 2, this place has emerged as a new ‘K-beauty haven’ for foreign tourists. The sight of visitors leaving with shopping bags full of not cold medicine, but functional cosmetics and regeneration creams, shows that pharmacies have become an essential course of the K-beauty tour, as evidenced by the ‘Korean Pharmacy Tour’ hashtags trending with millions of views on Instagram and TikTok.
Unique Attraction of Hongdae Pharmacy
At the center of this trend is Hongik Pharmacy. Unlike typical pharmacists who stay behind the counter, those here engage directly with foreign customers, listening to their skincare concerns. They conduct brief interviews about treatment history and lifestyle, recommending personalized products accordingly. The store offers customized pamphlets and K-basic skincare recommendations translated into various languages for visitors from countries like the U.S., China, and Japan, creating a customer-friendly environment that results in high satisfaction.
Science-based Consultation, Pharmacist’s Strategy
What makes Hongik Pharmacy stand out is its owner, Lee Joong-gil (39), who holds a master’s degree from Chungbuk National University’s College of Pharmacy and has unique experiences, having developed product formulations for premium brands like ‘Whoo’ and ‘Su:m’ at LG Household & Health Care’s labs, and gained market experience with Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s business development team. In 2021, Lee opened a pharmacy near Hongik University Station to break away from traditional pharmacy income structures reliant on hospital prescriptions and demonstrate his expertise as a pharmacist in creating a new model.
Lee notes how the cosmetics market often prioritizes concepts and stories over active ingredients and scientific efficacy. The essential competitive edge, according to Lee, is:
“Science-based consultations only pharmacists can provide are key to building trust”
Even in an era where information asymmetry is significantly reduced, there’s a depth that mere searches cannot fill, and the difference in weight between information provided by cosmetics store clerks and pharmacists is described as a competitive edge for pharmacies. This strategy is mirrored in the pharmacy’s spatial design, which invests billions in innovative models with soft teal lighting and open layouts instead of monochrome closed structures.
Personalized K-Beauty Routine
Currently, more than 60% of Hongik Pharmacy’s customers are foreign tourists. Lee feels a sense of responsibility to represent Korea, refusing to blindly recommend popular products. Instead, he insists on confirming customers’ skin conditions, asking about water intake, treatment history, lifestyle environment, among other detailed inquiries, before making product recommendations.
He also adopts a detailed approach to preferred products by country. Chinese customers tend to focus on acne scar treatments and regeneration care, while Japanese customers have a keen interest in pigmentation and antioxidant care. A pharmacist’s role, Lee emphasizes, is to accurately convey that stronger effects can also mean more irritation, aiming to help them understand skincare principles rather than harbor exaggerated expectations. This personalized approach provides customers deep satisfaction and trust.
Pursuing Intrinsic Value, the Vision of Pharmacy’s Future
Recently, ‘beauty-specialized pharmacies’ similar to Hongik Pharmacy are rapidly increasing around areas like Myeong-dong and Hongdae, and many feature high-capital investment. Lee warns that indiscriminate expansion focused solely on profit could harm the overall trust in K-beauty, stressing that clear standards should be established. He believes the true competitive edge of a pharmacy is:
“The pharmacy’s competitiveness lies in the density of consultations and the trust accumulated during the process, rather than size or speed”
In fact, he has received numerous proposals to chain or expand the brand, but has mostly politely declined. He believes that true competitiveness doesn’t lie in mere scaling up but in the depth of consultations and trust built during the process.
An anecdote of a British tourist who, after persistent consultations and purchasing products, returned with family six months later for bulk purchases, demonstrates the power of consultations. Lee strives to provide the best value to each customer, believing a foreign visitor’s experience at Hongik Pharmacy could be their entire Korean journey. His ultimate goal is clear:
“To become a pharmacy that could earn a Michelin star if it were a restaurant”
Conclusion
The constant flow of foreign tourists to Hongdae Pharmacy highlights new possibilities in the K-beauty market. Beyond just selling products, scientific consultations and personalized services, rooted in pharmacists’ expertise, create deep trust and satisfaction, generating new value for customers. This fundamental approach will be a vital force for securing sustainable competitiveness in the rapidly changing beauty market.
Skincare consultations based on pharmacists’ expertise are establishing new trust in the K-beauty market, offering exceptional value. is actively supporting this intrinsic competitive edge through practical blog marketing.
