What: Sephora is using China as a testing ground for the future of beauty retail, combining local co-creation, omnichannel membership and experiential stores.

Why it is important: This shows that physical retail can remain strategically valuable when stores deliver discovery, services, community and emotional engagement.

Sephora is deepening its investment in China by adapting its global retail model to local consumer behaviour, digital platforms and beauty innovation. While some international beauty groups are scaling back, Sephora sees China as a strategic growth market because of its scale, consumer sophistication and role as a source of emerging trends.
The retailer has recorded 21 consecutive months of offline foot traffic growth since October 2024, contributing to business recovery and comparable growth in 2026. Its strategy combines global resources with local depth, using partnerships with RedNote, Douyin and WeChat to connect trend insights, beauty advisers and members across digital and physical touchpoints. Sephora is also strengthening curation and co-creation. Its China portfolio includes 26 local beauty brands, with plans to expand to about 35, evaluated on innovation, R&D, product quality, community resonance and long-term potential. Physical stores remain central. Through concepts such as “Makeup Playground,” Sephoria and “Beauty Neighborhood” pop-ups, Sephora is turning stores into immersive destinations for discovery, services, culture and loyalty.

IADS Notes: Sephora’s China strategy reflects a broader beauty retail shift in which stores are being rebuilt around curation, services, digital integration and community rather than simple product access. In May 2026, The Robin Report highlighted Sephora’s BeautyTech leadership, showing how AI-driven personalisation and connected journeys are becoming central to beauty retail competitiveness. BeautyMatter’s April 2026 research on experiential retail in Shanghai and Singapore similarly showed that Gen Z expects stores to blend local culture, emotional connection and digital continuity. Forbes’ February 2026 coverage of Sephora’s gamified loyalty programme reinforced the move from transactional rewards toward interactive engagement, while BoF’s March 2026 analysis of department-store beauty showed that physical retail must offer curation, expertise and immersive experiences to compete with online and specialty channels. Fashion Network’s April 2026 coverage of Galeries Lafayette’s beauty transformation provided a parallel example of beauty becoming a traffic and growth engine through curated assortments, wellness, services and experiential retail.

How Sephora is redefining the value of physical retail through innovation in China