Sephora returns to UK with e-tail debut ahead of physical store

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 7, 2022

There's been lots of speculation about LVMH’s French beauty retailer Sephora returning to the UK and now it's been confirmed. It will launch in Britain on 17 October with feelunique.com, the beauty retailer that it acquired last year, being rebranded as sephora.co.uk.

The move makes sense in many ways with Feelunique already serving 1.3 million active customers in the country so Sephora certainly won't be starting from scratch as it enters a hugely competitive — but lucrative — beauty market.

And importantly, the debut online will set the scene for a London physical store launch next year, although we don't know the exact location yet.

The new Spehora-branded website/app will be “fully immersive” and will act as an “inspiring gateway” to discover a massive selection of products covering all of the key beauty categories along with wellness.

Of course, it's more than just giving an existing business a new name and as well as the distinctive Sephora branding, the own-brand Sephora Collection will be available on the site, along with a number of brands that are exclusive to the company in the UK.

Special products Sephora is known will be available too, including its popular festive assortment and advent calendars.

It won't be the first time that the chain has set foot in Britain with the company having opened a physical store at the Bluewater mall in Kent back when that was Europe's largest shopping mall and had only been open for a short while. However, the sizeable space was closed in 2005.

That meant Britain was one of the few major markets that it was absent from (it currently has around 3,000 boutiques in 36 countries).