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Sephora remains committed to its store base but is continuing to blend physical retail with online and AI, Anca Marola, Global Chief Digital Officer, Sephora told World Retail Congress attendees this afternoon.

“People still love the stores, the excitement remains and I think that’s pretty irreplaceable,” she said, with the company operating around 3,400 stores globally, with around 150 opening a year.

“This is still a big focus. But we’re bringing a lot of innovation to our stores and we have curated a table in-store to showcase the social brands. With the Beauty Scan, you get skin diagnostics and the shade analysis. This is a combination of hardware and AI to control the lighting and to make it extra precise. This information can be stores on the Sephora app, which can mean the correct shades come up, to save customers time,” she said.

She added that AI is training a new style of client behaviour, which is more conversational online.

“To me that’s exciting because it’s the first time we can bridge that gap between the stores and online. Ecommerce is around a third of our business and we are evolving that into more conversational advice, just like in-store when we can tailor the experience,” Marola said. “We do have a lot of information, including 14 million product reviews, loyalty programmes and preferences, the beauty scan, connecting this to make it more personal.”

Looking to the future, she said that was Sephora was looking at how it could amplify and double down on “what’s magical for the Sephora customer” and she said that the company thinks that the advice from those who know beauty best.

“It’s a very personal product category,” she stressed. “Then I would say our priority is doubling down on our omni channel convenience, giving customers the fastest delivery possible, which is down to two hours click and collect and this remains critical for our stores,” she said. “But customers are also progressing and seeking new channels, like advice on ChaptGPT, so we need to meet them where they are.”

Marola said that Sephora remains fresh in its physical locations by updating products and investing in customer services and experiences, to keep shoppers coming back across its 36 markets.

“We have local teams everywhere which means we can localise the messaging and communication and we try and understand and adapt to the local culture,” she said. “Channels will always change but what brings people to Sephora is to bring our authority and trust to people across channels and platforms.”