At 55 Years Previous, Sephora Is Getting a Main Facelift

• Sephora is embarking on the most important capital mission in its historical past — an entire redesign of its shops.
• Sephora CEO Artemis Patrick stated the redesign would change how its North American outlets look.
• She stated the refresh aimed to offer a constant client expertise throughout all shops.

Sephora is betting massive on its brick-and-mortar technique by giving its complete fleet of North American shops a facelift.

The LVMH-owned magnificence retailer, which operates over 2,700 shops in 35 international locations, will revamp the design of all its North American shops within the subsequent 5 years, CEO Artemis Patrick stated on the Nationwide Retail Federation’s Massive Present on Monday.

Patrick stated it will likely be the “largest capital mission for Sephora in its historical past.” She added that whereas some shops will solely see minor modifications, others can anticipate “main redesigns.”

She stated the corporate talked to “thousands and thousands of shoppers” and used warmth maps to grasp its prospects’ buying habits.

One factor the retailer is rethinking is gondolas — stand-alone islands in its shops that show merchandise from one explicit model. She stated that the gondolas are “fairly costly.”

“We’re not an affordable date,” Patrick stated. “And we do not need our manufacturers to be spending a ton of cash on constructing these superb fixtures, after which it is not productive and would not work out.”

As a substitute, she stated that Sephora was testing out a brand new structure format centered on Sephora’s 4 key product classes — make-up, skincare, perfume, and hair care — which might make updating shops simpler.

One other change customers can anticipate to see is the placement of the wonder studios, which might be moved to the perimeters of the shops.

“We talked to our thousands and thousands of shoppers, and the truth is, they did not need their make-up being finished within the window,” she stated. “Not stunning.”

Patrick stated that Sephora can also be rethinking the part close to the checkout counters the place the mini sizes of merchandise are positioned.

She stated that with Sephora’s workers billing a fourth of shoppers by way of cell gadgets across the shops, the minis part may very well be damaged up and moved to the entrance of the shops as an alternative of close to the checkout counters.

She added that the redesign, as an entire, aimed to provide Sephora prospects in numerous areas a constant expertise.

“One of many issues that was actually, actually essential to us was making certain that it doesn’t matter what, the place you’re, whether or not you’re in our Soho retailer, you are in Boise, Idaho, otherwise you’re in Vancouver Island, that have is identical regardless of the place you go,” she stated.

She added, “As a result of we do imagine we have now that consistency with our magnificence advisors, however perhaps not essentially in all our retail shops.”

Sephora contributed closely to LVMH’s “selective retailing” division. Within the first half of 2024, ending June 30, the division raked in $8.6 billion in revenues and noticed a 7% enhance in earnings from recurring operations in comparison with the yr earlier than.

Its greatest rivals within the US embrace the cosmetics retailer chain Ulta Magnificence and division retailer chains Nordstrom and Macy’s. Macy’s not too long ago introduced that it plans to shutter 150 shops by the tip of 2026.

Representatives of Sephora declined to remark in response to a request from Enterprise Insider.