Following on from the success of Sephora’s first UK store opening in Westfield White City, the beauty retailer has announced that its second UK site will open in Westfield Stratford on the 15 November.
The store will offer 125 brands across the makeup, skincare, haircare, fragrance, and wellness categories. As well as its Sephora Collection, the Stratford store will also feature a host of new and exclusive brands including Adwoa Beauty, Relevant, STRAAND, Salt & Stone and Naked Sundays.
Sarah Boyd, Sephora UK CEO, said: “We are so grateful for the welcome we have received from our fans in the UK. Their response to our White City opening blew us away and far exceeded our expectations. We are committed to giving the UK a unique Sephora experience, one tailored to the unique cultural needs of this wonderful country. We hope the community in Stratford love the store as much as those in West London and look forward to a day of treats and surprises at our opening.”
Sephora is ranked within the largest 100 beauty and pharmacy ecommerce sites in the RetailX Beauty & Cosmetic 2023 report.
Part of LVMH, the French company that houses multiple brands across luxury including the beauty & cosmetics sector, Sephora is part of the company’s Selective Retailing division which includes Paris department store Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche and luxury fashion pureplay 24S.
According to the company, Sephora aims to be “always at the forefront of latest trends. Sephora’s unique shopping experience offers beauty clients across the world an unparalleled choice among premium brand perfumes and cosmetics.”
Sephora is present in 35 countries, with more than 2,600 bricks-and-mortar stores as well as online operations. The retailer carries around 78,000 products and employs 39,000 people worldwide.
In the US, where it is among the leaders in the overall beauty & cosmetics sector, Sephora operates more than 600 stores as well as being present in a growing number of Sephora at Kohl’s stores.
The first of these spaces within Kohl’s department stores opened in August 2021. The firms plan for stores to open at all of Kohl’s 1,100+ locations across the US, with Kohl’s projecting annual sales from the premium beauty & cosmetics spaces of $2 billion by 2025. Kohl reported in August 2022 that the 200 Sephora at Kohl’s stores that opened in 2021 have “maintained a high single-digit per cent sales lift, relative to the balance of the chain.”
The 400 stores that opened in 2022 were seeing a mid single-digit per cent sales lift, “which is consistent with the initial performance in the first 200 stores.”
The report also showed how the two brands are complementing each other since “roughly half of all customers” who have made a purchase at Sephora are buying something from another category at Kohl’s as well.
Online, Sephora US has accelerated its digital architecture growth with a switch to microservices based, API-first, cloud-native, headless technology (MACH). The move is part of the premium retailer’s plans to enable customers to “shop without constraints, anytime, anywhere” as well as boosting digital experiences, including increased personalisation, and omnichannel services for customers.
In the UK, the switch from Feelunique to Sephora branding is complete and the company’s re-launch has been amplified with the opening of the flagship bricks-and-mortar store in London.
