Photo by Hajaratu Kamara
By Hajaratu Kamara
The French beauty retailer Sephora is set to open their new UK store for the first time in 17 years on Wednesday the 8th of March.
Sephora have had an online presence since in the UK for over a year after launching their official UK site in 2022 but now consumers can finally take a physical shopping trip to Sephora at their new store in White City Westfields.
Sephora first launched in the UK in 2000 and opened an impressive six stores in five years but their success was short lived and they decided to exit the UK market in May of 2005.
There are many speculations as to why Sephora left the UK market but the retailer claimed it was due to increased rent prices and that it was costing them too much to compete with the established players in the UK Beauty market.
Sephora’s online launch was a success due to its acquisition of the UK online beauty retailer Feel-unique, and by acquiring the site Sephora also gained its 1.3 million active users.
Chief executive and chair of Sephora, Chris de Lapuente, previously stated in an interview published in Retail Gazette: “We are delighted to bring Sephora to the U.K., responding to Britain’s strong demand for our unique prestige beauty experience. The U.K. is home to a dynamic beauty and wellbeing market that Sephora will aim to surprise and delight through our trademark know how and creativity.”
Westfields already houses a number of Sephora’s direct competitors such as Boots and SpaceNK and it seems they are ready to meet their new neighbours.
“We are happy to have some healthy competition,” says Kad Mehmed, 27, a SpaceNK Consultant who works at Westfield White City.
“Obviously both our stores house exclusive brands so we will bring in different customers but truthfully we are just excited that the beauty industry is growing and we are excited to welcome them into Westfield.”
And they aren’t the only ones ready to welcome their new neighbours.
“I mean it’s exciting obviously because we haven’t had a Sephora before but as a business we don’t really see Sephora as our competitor because our stores vibes are completely different,” said Noor Nazar, 28, a Consultant for Rituals, a wellbeing beauty store.
“They are more beauty and we are more wellness, they even house some of our products so to be honest we are just excited for the new footfall into the shopping centre.”
White City Westfield is currently buzzing with excitement for the grand opening of store with the Shepherd’s Bush station coated in the black and white stripes of the Sephora logo. But it seems that the public aren’t sharing the same enthusiasm.
“I mean I’m gonna go and check out the store because I mean its about time that we had a Sephora in the UK but I also feel like it might to be too late,” said Leona Hemley-Akano, 27, hotel clerk.
“I get all my faves for other stores so unless it’s something that they have exclusively I don’t really see myself shopping there to be honest.”
Sephora will be hosting its grand opening at 11 am on March 8th, International Women’s Day. The festivities include a grand ribbon cutting ceremony and they will be providing goodie bags for the first 300 customers on the day. They will also be hosting a number of free beauty masterclasses for customers for the first five days post launch.
A very informative Article, cause I never knew a new Sephora store was opening before reading this, so thank you very much.