Dominique Petruzzi
Research expert covering Cosmetics, Personal Care, Health & Hygiene industries.
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The French retailer was founded over 50 years ago and thanks to its widespread presence in more than 30 countries and a great number of stores, it is now one of the leading shopping destinations for beauty supplies. In the late 90’s, Sephora became part of the company Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) and expanded its activity to the United States, with the opening of its first shop in New York. In the following years, Sephora managed to enter many other markets, including the Middle East and Canada.
Sephora’s impact
In 2022, Sephora boasted more than 14.5 billion U.S. dollars in worldwide sales, of which nearly seven billion was generated in the United States. These outstanding results led Sephora to be listed in a ranking of the fastest-growing retailers in the North American country. However, Sephora is also very popular in its country of origin, taking up the third spot as the leading beauty retail company based on turnover and the first spot as French beauty consumers' favorite brand in 2023.Identifying the Sephora shopper
In the United States, the average age of Sephora customers comes to about 37 years old, which is younger than other stores that also offer a selection of beauty products, such as Walmart or Ulta Beauty. In the same year, female U.S. Sephora shoppers also had the highest income. About 40 percent of the retailer's customers refers to themselves as very passionate about the body care, skin care, and hair care product categories, while over 60 percent prefers to use TikTok as a source of information for beauty products.Young consumers and the Sephora frenzy
Sephora has recently been in the news as a result of the abundance of beauty lovers and influencers belonging to Generation Alpha, who appear to be very interested in prestige brands such as Drunk Elephant and have caused controversy thanks to their behavior inside the retailer's shops. However, Sephora has always been a favorite of younger generations: according to a recent survey, it is in fact the leading beauty shopping destination among Gen Z in the U.S., followed by Ulta Beauty and Target.
