How Yepoda brought the K-beauty hype to Europe

K-beauty is currently considered one of the most influential trend topics in the beauty industry, and Korea is one of the most innovative markets in research and product development.

In this Kassenzone episode, Karo talks to Yepoda co-founder Veronika Strotmann about how souvenir purchases on family trips became an established K-beauty startup in Europe. Veronika explains the fundamental difference from reactive Western skincare and reveals how Yepoda cleverly combines state-of-the-art Asian research with European values such as clean beauty.

Of course, the conversation also covers strategic growth hacks. How do you scale profitably to millions in revenue? How do you make the leap from a pure D2C player to the highly competitive shelves of Sephora? And why does Yepoda rely on its own experience stores in Milan instead of relying only on influencers and constant discounts for marketing?

An overview of the conversation.

1. 3:41 K-Beauty Explained & Yepoda's Founding Story
2. 6:05 Brand Strategy, Innovations & the Product Range
3. 10:18 Growth, International Expansion & Offline Retail Strategy
4. 20:06 Future Visions, Entering New Markets & Influencer Marketing
5. 27:04 Customer Loyalty & Outlook

From D2C growth to seamless omnichannel & AI strategy

The rapid rise from a D2C brand to an omnichannel player inevitably entails technological and operational complexity. In the episode, Veronika talks openly about the challenge of measuring customer loyalty across all channels. While the in-house loyalty program works brilliantly in the Shopify ecosystem, the partner retail often remains a data black box. This is exactly where we at Etribes come in with our Tech Implementation. Through smart vendor configuration of customer data platforms (CDPs) and CRM systems, we help brands break down these silos and create truly connected omnichannel ecosystems.

At the same time, opening up new markets such as the UK and US and managing countless, localized social media channels in-house requires enormous resources. Veronika reports that Yepoda relies heavily on testing creatives and the right messaging when expanding. This is exactly where our AI Transformation unfolds its biggest lever, intelligent content automation. Instead of tying resources into manual creation, we're rethinking content across the entire value chain. In this way, we help companies drastically reduce their marketing costs and production times, while at the same time anchoring the basis for a permanently scalable AI transformation in the business model.