French cosmetic brand China Sephora has launched its 200th store, in Shanghai.
This follows Sephora opening a Tmall flagship store in September, and well as launching its O2O system, allowing customers to buy online from physical stores. Sephora has built up its omnichannel with multi-touch points in 200 stores, an independent official website, flagship stores at JD.com and Tmall, a WeChat account and an app.
Its milestone store in Shanghai, where the brand originally launched in China 11 years ago, is its first outlet with the Beauty Studio, a make-up lab where customers can explore products and have a personalised experience.
In its five zones, the store carries 111 brands and 7934 SKUs. The zones are skincare, make-up, fragrance, accessories and mancare. Customers are free to try any product, with beauty advisors available plus a free make-up service.
China Sephora GM Philippe Bacac believes the customer demand for cosmetics will continue to grow. The company, combining online and physical stores, now covers more than 500 cities in China.
Sephora last year discovered that China has the highest ratio of cleft-lip babies in the world. Collaborating with NGO Operation Smile, Sephora has helped 329 affected babies recover.