Anua, a Korean skincare brand, asked our student consulting team why its new PDRN serum and cream were selling far behind a key competitor on TikTok Shop, and what to change. We answered with content benchmarking, a US consumer survey and a pricing study, and turned it into a final report for Anua.
Anua’s PDRN line was losing at both ends: its TikTok videos drew fewer views (a visit problem), and when shoppers reached the product page, a premium price wasn’t backed by the proof they look for (a purchase problem). The benchmark was Medicube, the strongest PDRN competitor on TikTok Shop in our data.
Medicube’s GMV was about 20× Anua’s, even though Anua’s serum sold at $35–41 against Medicube’s $19–27 over the same week.
Source: Fastmoss TikTok Shop data, 28 days to Nov 12, 2025
Hook type, top 8 videos per brand (≈80% of each brand’s top-100 views)
Anua leaned on striking visuals (67% of hooks) and texture shots; Medicube mixed hooks and centered its videos on before-and-after results. Top-100 views: 79.5M for Anua vs 221.3M for Medicube; engagement 1.4% vs 1.7%.
Source: team benchmark of the top 100 TikTok videos per brand for “brand + PDRN”
| Product page element | Anua | Medicube |
|---|---|---|
| Before & after photos | ✕ | ✓ |
| Clinical data | ✓ | ✓ |
| Consumer reviews featured | ✕ | ✕ |
| Scientific explanation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Visualized usage | ✕ | ✓ |
| Q&A / FAQ | ✕ | ✕ |
Anua’s page leaned on scientific proof and lacked the social proof (before-and-afters, real results) that justifies a premium price.
Source: TikTok Shop product pages, Nov 2025
Share of responses, top elements (US survey)
Before-and-after photos topped the list. Pairing social proof with Anua’s scientific claims became the “must-have” product page set.
Source: team survey, US women 18–44 (n = 350)
Before recommending content, we asked US consumers four questions: where they discover skincare, what problems they want solved, whom they trust, and what keeps them watching. The answers were strikingly consistent across the three main channels.
Three short-form channels drive about 60% of discovery, so we focused the strategy there.
Across TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Reels, the same three concerns made up 72–75% of answers:
Hydration, calming sensitive skin and firmness became the three selling points to repeat in hashtags, captions, search keywords and the product page.
Experts and mid-tier creators win trust; celebrities barely register. Content should feel unsponsored, share a similar skin problem and show real use.
What holds attention in the first 3 seconds (TikTok UGC)
The visual-novelty hook Anua relied on ranked fourth. And although experts were the most trusted messengers, clinical explanations were among the least preferred content (8–12%): use experts, but drop the lecture.
We turned the research into a customer-journey roadmap: content that stops the scroll, a product page that earns the premium, a bundle and price that lower the barrier to a first purchase, and a review engine that compounds over time.
Preferred product combination (respondents)
44% preferred the three-step routine, and 65% of them said it’s “more effective when used as a routine.” Recommendation: pin the serum + cream + toner bundle at the top of search on TikTok Shop and Amazon, and make the routine the star of the content.
How shoppers rate a new-ingredient serum or cream at each price
| $15–19 | $20–24 | $25–29 | $30–34 | >$35 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expensive | 0% | 10% | 21% | 24% | 44% |
| Acceptable | 0% | 31% | 37% | 27% | 5% |
| Reasonable | 35% | 39% | 20% | 1% | 0% |
| Overlap | 35% | 70% | 57% | 28% | 5% |
$20–24 is where most shoppers feel no resistance (70% overlap); $25–29 still works when the value is clear (57%). Against Anua’s $40 serum and $38 cream list prices, that pointed to an everyday discount of about 33% and 29%, deeper peak-sale discounts (about 45% and 42%), a first-purchase discount and a trial-size routine kit.
Top promotions under uncertainty: first-time purchase discount 31%, trial size 30%, bundle discount 21%, free gift 18%
Seed high-quality reviews early with a targeted sampling program, sending the full routine rather than a single product.
Benchmark: Kérastase’s sampling program reached an 88% review rate and 1,000+ reviews
Tier the rewards by review type: a small code or points for text reviews, larger codes, credits or minis for photo and video reviews.
Survey: price (34%), number of reviews (32%) and promotions (19%) were the top purchase factors, ahead of brand (15%)
Automate review requests after purchase, with two or three reminders to customers who haven’t reviewed yet.
Benchmark: Jane Iredale’s automated requests grew reviews 112%
Skills: Survey design & analysis · Price-sensitivity meter · Competitive benchmarking · Data visualization · Client presentation
Data and method: Fastmoss TikTok Shop sales and price data (Oct–Nov 2025); the top 100 TikTok videos by views for “Anua PDRN” and “Medicube PDRN,” with the 8 videos that made up ≈80% of each brand’s views coded by hook and format; an online survey of US women aged 18–44 of all ethnicities in October 2025 (n = 350; some modules n = 300). Survey figures are shares of responses. Benchmarks for Kérastase and Jane Iredale come from published vendor case studies. This page summarizes the team’s final report to Anua from a USC KOJOBS student industry-partnership project; the recommendations are the team’s, not Anua’s.