HERA Launches First Japan Store at Hankyu Umeda
Summary
In September 2025, HERA, Korea’s leading luxury beauty brand, opened its first official permanent store in the Japanese market at the Umeda Hankyu Department Store.
Located in the heart of Osaka, Umeda Hankyu is a premier retail channel driving fashion and beauty trends in Western Japan.
By launching on the 3rd-floor Beauty Zone—a hub for trendy, style-conscious customers in their early to mid-20s—we are now able to communicate directly with Japan’s younger generation and propose a new K-Beauty experience.
The opening of the Umeda Hankyu store marks a significant first step in introducing HERA’s makeup products, rooted in the sensibility and beauty of Seoul, to Japanese customers.
The Umeda Hankyu store was designed under the concept of “Less but Iconic, Sensory Luxury.” Instead of ornate decoration, we focused on restrained lines and the depth of materials to allow visitors to sense essential beauty. Customers can freely experience products throughout the store, exploring colors and textures that suit them, and experiencing the sophisticated beauty sensibility of Seoul women. Through this opening, HERA presents a new standard of Korean makeup to the Japanese market and officially begins its journey of sensorial luxury.
The Umeda Hankyu store was designed under the concept of “Less but Iconic, Sensory Luxury.” Instead of ornate decoration, we focused on restrained lines and the depth of materials to allow visitors to sense essential beauty. Customers can freely experience products throughout the store, exploring colors and textures that suit them, and experiencing the sophisticated beauty sensibility of Seoul women. Through this opening, HERA presents a new standard of Korean makeup to the Japanese market and officially begins its journey of sensorial luxury.
Design Point 01 _ HERA’s Color Spectrum at a Glance
As HERA’s first official department store location in Japan, this space was planned to help Japanese customers encountering the brand for the first time to easily understand and feel drawn to HERA.
To allow visitors to intuitively experience HERA’s color sensibility and sophisticated mood, we aimed to showcase a color spectrum that is visible at a single glance.
Departing from the typical display structures found in existing department stores, we applied a layout that spreads products horizontally.
This ensures that customers can view the entire product range immediately upon entry, allowing even those unfamiliar with the brand to approach without hesitation and freely test and experience the products.
We positioned the Main Tester Zone at the front center of the space to serve as a visual focal point. A tiered structure was applied to the product display, designed so that the colors of the products in the back are not obscured but clearly revealed. By utilizing these graduated height differences, the color spectrum is distinctly recognizable even from a distance, maximizing the expression of the brand’s vibrant colors. Additionally, we utilized a voluminous display of lip products to create a rich sense of color, allowing customers to intuitively sense HERA’s core category. By harmonizing the product visuals with their actual color payoff, we completed an experiential structure that naturally invites customers to reach out and test the items. This spatial composition functions not merely as a display, but as a medium that visually communicates HERA’s sensorial world of color and sophisticated brand identity.
We positioned the Main Tester Zone at the front center of the space to serve as a visual focal point. A tiered structure was applied to the product display, designed so that the colors of the products in the back are not obscured but clearly revealed. By utilizing these graduated height differences, the color spectrum is distinctly recognizable even from a distance, maximizing the expression of the brand’s vibrant colors. Additionally, we utilized a voluminous display of lip products to create a rich sense of color, allowing customers to intuitively sense HERA’s core category. By harmonizing the product visuals with their actual color payoff, we completed an experiential structure that naturally invites customers to reach out and test the items. This spatial composition functions not merely as a display, but as a medium that visually communicates HERA’s sensorial world of color and sophisticated brand identity.
Design Point 02 _ An Approachable Introduction to HERA’s Products
To the right of the main tester, we positioned a ‘Mini Content Table’ designed to help Japanese customers encountering the brand for the first time easily understand and feel drawn to HERA’s core product lines.
Going beyond simple display, this space functions as a curation zone, introducing the brand’s best lip products alongside sensorial visuals.
To ensure HERA’s signature color spectrum is intuitively recognized, diverse lip colors were arranged in vertical blocks with a rhythmic flow, designed to catch the eye even from a distance.
Each color block accurately represents the product’s actual color payoff, facilitating intuitive selection.
Additionally, concise ‘one-point’ messages were added to each color section, allowing Japanese customers to effortlessly grasp the product concepts and features without any language barrier.
Design Point 03 _ Seamless Testing Everywhere
The HERA store is designed not merely as a product showcase, but as an experiential space where customers can understand the brand through direct engagement.
To achieve this, we displayed testers for the full color range not only at the main tester zone but also at promotional modules positioned throughout the store, allowing customers to freely test products from any location.
This layout naturally encourages customers to dwell longer, broadening the scope of their interest in and experience with the brand.
By meticulously designing the entire store as a space where testing is possible everywhere, we ensured that customers can enjoy the process of freely experiencing products and discovering colors that match their personal style.
Would you like me to refine any other sections of the store description or help with the press release for the opening?
Design Point 04 _ Luxury at Your Fingertips: Design with a Sense of Touch
We sought to embody a delicate luxury that goes beyond mere visual beauty to design the very sense of touch.
HERA’s vision of ‘Sensory Luxury’ is not about visual opulence alone, but encompasses the experience of soft, refined textures felt at the fingertips.
To achieve this, we selected artificial marble as the finishing material for the main tester fixtures.
This choice conveys a subtle visual elegance while providing a soft, stable tactile sensation as customers interact with the products.
Designed for exceptional durability, the material retains its surface texture and color over time, even with frequent use.
We opted for a matte, soft-touch finish rather than a high-gloss surface to emphasize HERA’s signature sophisticated and understated aesthetic. This smooth tactility serves as a key element, allowing customers to feel HERA’s comfortable luxury with every touch during product testing. Additionally, we incorporated HERA’s signature ‘FACET EDGE’ into the fixture design. We carefully softened the corners to avoid any sharp or cold impressions, meticulously ensuring that customer movement and contact with the fixtures remain comfortable and seamless.
We opted for a matte, soft-touch finish rather than a high-gloss surface to emphasize HERA’s signature sophisticated and understated aesthetic. This smooth tactility serves as a key element, allowing customers to feel HERA’s comfortable luxury with every touch during product testing. Additionally, we incorporated HERA’s signature ‘FACET EDGE’ into the fixture design. We carefully softened the corners to avoid any sharp or cold impressions, meticulously ensuring that customer movement and contact with the fixtures remain comfortable and seamless.
Design Point 05 _ A Wall Counseling Zone Showcasing HERA’s Unique Base Makeup Expertise
At the rear of the store, we established a Wall Counseling Zone designed for an immersive experience of HERA’s core competitive strengths: the base makeup and cushion lines.
To capture customer attention even from a distance, we utilized the entire wall to create a voluminous display of the diverse shade spectrum using product dummies.
This arrangement goes beyond a simple product display; it intuitively demonstrates the precise tone calibration and sophisticated color balance that HERA embodies.
This allows customers to instantly recognize HERA’s extensive base color range and product expertise at a glance.
Additionally, we introduced the ‘SHADE MATCH BY ME’ digital content, which has garnered high satisfaction rates in our Korean stores.
By scanning or testing the customer’s skin tone to recommend the most suitable base shade, this program offers a personalized counseling experience where customers can actively discover their perfect color match.
Moving beyond simple testing, this enables customers to verify results optimized for their specific skin tone, naturally guiding them toward a purchase.
We also operate a professional makeup program offering reservation-based 1:1 Makeup Classes and Personal Color Services, aimed at conveying HERA’s professional and sensorial makeup philosophy. Furthermore, the space is designed to offer comfort so that walk-in customers can freely receive touch-up services without hesitation. Even the tools required for touch-ups were meticulously designed to enhance focus during counseling and ensure a comfortable product testing experience for the customer. Would you like me to help summarize these design points for a portfolio or presentation deck?
We also operate a professional makeup program offering reservation-based 1:1 Makeup Classes and Personal Color Services, aimed at conveying HERA’s professional and sensorial makeup philosophy. Furthermore, the space is designed to offer comfort so that walk-in customers can freely receive touch-up services without hesitation. Even the tools required for touch-ups were meticulously designed to enhance focus during counseling and ensure a comfortable product testing experience for the customer. Would you like me to help summarize these design points for a portfolio or presentation deck?
The HERA Umeda Hankyu store
has been realized as a
space where
customers can feel HERA’s sensibility
at their fingertips
and naturally
experience the ‘Sensorial Luxury’
that the brand pursues.
has been realized as a
space where
customers can feel HERA’s sensibility
at their fingertips
and naturally
experience the ‘Sensorial Luxury’
that the brand pursues.
- Amorepacific Creatives
- Space Design
- Seong Daye, Ko Eunyoung
- PR/Sales
- APJ, Kim Jungjin
- Creative Direction
- In Jeehyo
- Photography
- APJ
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