What: M&S is bringing Sephora's beauty range and specialist advisors into 100 UK stores and its online platform from spring 2027, with the final brand lineup to be announced closer to launch.

Why it is important: M&S is handing its beauty offer to a specialist rather than building it alone, confirming that curated, advisor-led beauty is now a traffic driver that department-store-style retailers want to own or partner for.

Marks & Spencer and Sephora have entered a major partnership to create a new beauty destination across selected stores. "Sephora at M&S" will launch in selected M&S stores and online in spring 2027, and will be rolled out to 100 high street stores and retail parks across the UK. The aim is to attract new customers and give existing ones more reasons to shop there, while marking the next step in Sephora's UK growth plans by making it accessible to more communities.

The partnership combines Sephora's beauty expertise, brand relationships and discovery with M&S's brand heritage, trust, national presence and omnichannel platform. Customers can expect a curated range of beauty favourites, emerging brands and exclusive products across skincare, makeup, fragrance, haircare and bodycare, alongside access to specialist beauty teams. Online, a broader range will be available with home delivery and click and collect. The final brand lineup will be announced closer to launch.

M&S's John Lyttle said Sephora will sit at the heart of its future beauty offer, while M&S continues investing in its own-label beauty categories. Sephora UK's Sarah Boyd said the partnership will bring its beauty advisors to stores in communities where customers already shop.

IADS Notes: M&S's tie-up with Sephora extends a store-led beauty push already visible at its Pantheon flagship, where an expanded, curated beauty offer including Sunday Riley, Biodance, Nuxe and Clinique was presented as part of M&S's first full-line R&D store for fashion, home and beauty (WWD, July 2026). It also fits M&S's use of capital-light partnerships to expand, as in its Zalando logistics tie-up, which covers 22 European countries and has cut delivery costs by up to 58% (Retail Week, August 2026). For Sephora, the 100-store rollout adds physical reach at a time when its stores are proving their value: in China, it has recorded 21 consecutive months of offline traffic growth by turning stores into destinations for curation, services and community (WWD, July 2026). The same logic is visible elsewhere in beauty. Falabella is treating beauty as a traffic-driving category for younger consumers and taking its format beyond department-store spaces (Perú Retail, July 2026), while Shinsegae is challenging Sephora, Ulta and Olive Young in the U.S. through early discovery and curation rather than scale (WWD, September 2026).

M&S and Sephora enter partnership to bring new beauty destination to the high street