Major Updates Coming to Sephora Locations Nationwide

Big changes are ahead for Sephora. The beauty retailer is planning to make major alterations to its 700 brick-and-mortar stores across North America.

According to Retail Dive, Sephora plans to redesign every store to varying degrees. This major shift in the store’s footprint was announced by Artemis Patrick, president and CEO of Sephora North America, at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show conference last week. 

Patrick explained that while some stores are set for “major redesigns,” some will be “minor.” The bulk of the renovations will be done over the next five years.

This revamp will touch on every aspect of Sephora’s stores, including its retail spaces for products such as makeup, skin care, fragrance, and hair care. As the store moves into the future, these alterations are necessary for the store to continue to change with customers’ needs and advance the retailer’s future.

One big part of the redesign will be the company’s “gondolas.” These are store displays that show off popular products or new and trendy items.

Patrick said these displays are “expensive” and will be re-evaluated throughout the revamp. She admitted Sephora is “not a cheap date,” and elaborated by saying, “We don’t want our brands to be spending a ton of money on building these amazing fixtures, and then it doesn’t work out.” 

What Are Some of the Changes Sephora Customers Can Look Forward To?

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Some of the changes that will likely be implemented have to do with updating elements of shopping at Sephora that customers have come to know and love. This includes the retailer’s beloved beauty studios. Currently, they are front and center, but the store is planning to put them off to the side to offer customers more privacy.

Other changes include how customers line up at the register to check out. According to Retail Dive, after finding out that around 25% of customers were being checked out by a beauty advisor within the store through mobile, the retailer decided to make “some of its fixtures more modular, like the ‘minis’ setup.” This allows for more efficient checkout and less wait times, especially with the option of increasing mobile checkout in-store.

“I think too many times retailers talk about the ‘store of the future’ and it’s very much driven by the design team. So you have this conversation of form versus function,” Patrick said. She stressed that Sephora’s new concept will be equally split between design and functionality.

According to the outlet, Sephora has already “brought the changes to 111 stores over the past few months and, as a result, key performance indicators, transactions, productivity and sales are up when compared to the control group.”