Is Sephora’s first UK store in nearly two decades worth the wait?

The launch of Sephora’s Westfield London store was highly anticipated by both consumers and competitors in the beauty space, with legions of fans queuing up for hours to get in on the first day and some even camping overnight in Westfield London to be the first through the doors.

The store delivers everything you would expect from a Sephora bricks-and-mortar offer. Spanning more than 6,000 sq ft, the statement black-and-white striped walls of the store are home to thousands of products from more than 135 brands.

Customers will find skincare, haircare, makeup and gifts. The store is a one-stop shop for all things beauty and encompasses everything that has led to the brand being so successful internationally.

The beauty retailer has made good use of its iconic retail features like the Beauty Hub and the Benefit Brow Bar, along with some new ones such as Sephora’s first-ever Lip Bar where customers can choose from various shades and finishes.

The store’s unique Hot on Social corner also taps into the social-media-driven nature of the category, featuring the top 10 trending items in beauty at any moment.

With UK fans previously travelling thousands of miles to shop with Sephora, it seems many are more than willing to make the shorter pilgrimage to Westfield London.

As one consumer at the store said: “I have never been to a Sephora before but this is everything I expected and imagined it to be. I can definitely see myself shopping from here often in the future.”

This will no doubt come as a relief to the French beauty retailer, especially after the launch of its UK website last year was met with underwhelming reviews and complaints from users of glitches and bugs.

While the new store launch has certainly made a splash, it is reminiscent of the excitement created when Sephora first entered the UK in 2000. Despite the hype then Sephora opened just five stores in five years, before wilting under the pressure from established brands such as Boots and Superdrug.

Are the UK giants more worried this time around?

Let the beauty battle commence

Despite only just opening with a single store so far, industry experts are certain Sephora will have its competitors worried.

GlobalData lead analyst Sofie Willmott said: “Sephora may have only announced the opening of a solitary store in the UK, but the potential threat to the incumbent beauty retail leaders is significant.”

“GlobalData’s UK consumer survey shows that one third of UK shoppers aware of Sephora would switch to the global beauty retailer for their health and beauty purchases, with the main retailers they would turn away from being Superdrug and Boots.”

Boots has taken immediate action against the arrival of a brand it interestingly once owned until 1993.

It unveiled its 170th Beauty Hall on the same day as Sephora’s launch – in the same shopping centre. This revamped store is part of the retailer’s plans to open refurbished beauty halls across the country in shopping centres and high streets to reach as many consumers as possible.

While the timing and location of the new store opening seem telling, Boots chief marketing officer Pete Markey isn’t giving anything away.

“We’ve invested a lot into our beauty offering over the last couple of years,” he said. “We’ve added more brands in, more new content, we’ve made a lot of changes in store with our beauty reinvention programme.

“We’ve really modernised our Westfield store, we’ve put beauty even more front and centre, we’ve worked with a number of brands to make that one of the biggest, best beauty stores we’ve got in the UK.”

Sephora has also chosen to return to the UK market against a challenging backdrop. The cost-of-living crisis has hit UK consumer confidence hard and price and affordability are hugely important in the beauty category, as its competitors well know.

With that in mind, Boots this week unveiled changes to its much-loved Advantage Card loyalty programme. In what it called its “biggest-ever investment in value”, the retailer said all Advantage Card members will get an instant 10% discount on more than 6,000 of its own-brand products.

“Our perspective is that we are known for beauty and we will continue to be known for beauty,” said Markey. “Our opportunity is how do we continue to make our offering stronger? The Advantage Card is an important part of that as well. We want to focus on building that relationship with customers over time and continue to be that number one place on the high street for beauty and maintaining that.”

Superdrug too has invested heavily in price, freezing the cost of 5,000 of its products late last year.

Sephora is no stranger to hype and excitement, and its first UK store in nearly two decades has delivered that. While fans are glad the wait is over, there is more work for Sephora to do to ensure history does not repeat itself.