Sephora doesn’t just carry beauty products. The retailer — and, by extension, the Sephora consumer — is directly responsible for building many of the leading brands and trends that shape the market. Carolyn Bojanowski, evp of merchandising at Sephora U.S., has a direct sightline in seeing those new brands and categories emerge.
“Our consumer lets us know right away if something will click or not,” she said. “We have this incredible community — not only of clients, but also of beauty advisors. They’re the first to tell us, ‘This thing is hot. Why aren’t you doing this?'”
There’s no one thing that makes a brand or product a hit, but Bojanowski said a key throughline in many of Sephora’s top performers is a strong brand founder. And Sephora is looking to incubate future generations of founder-led brands through its Accelerate program.
“The idea behind it is, sort of: How do you get into the Sephora ecosystem with a little bit more support? And we actually pivoted the [Accelerate] program to be brand founder-led only about five years ago,” she said. “We literally do a curriculum. It’s everything from branding to how do you hook into Sephora’s EDI system, like the non-sexy operation stuff.”
Bojanowski has also seen a shift in consumer priorities at Sephora. While fragrance traditionally lagged behind makeup and skin care in the American market, the category is now seeing some of the fastest growth. Bojanowski says brands like Kayali and Phlur have helped drive the American consumer to discover fragrance at Sephora in recent years.
“I’m proud to say that fragrance is now our fastest-growing category. We’ve done a lot of work in our stores to up the level and upgrade the look and feel of fragrance to get that storytelling out there,” she said.
Bojanowski joined the Glossy stage on Tuesday during the Glossy Beauty & Wellness Summit to share this and more. Some of her comments, below, have been lightly edited for clarity.
On earning support from Sephora
“It all starts with product. You really just have to love product and the point of view of the product. There’s obviously a lot of consumer choice right now, and it’s something that stands apart a little bit. I also think our most successful brands have a really amazing brand founder, who’s bringing that different point of view or thought behind what they’re bringing to the consumer.”
“We always say this to brands: It’s that authenticity. Be true to yourself. It’s not about chasing the competition.”
On the growing fragrance category
“At first it was like, ‘Are Americans ever going to wear fragrance?’ And cut to Covid, where I think creators really started having to figure out a way to explain and storytell around fragrance in a way that the American consumer just had never seen before.”
“The men’s fragrance trend right now is on fire, and we certainly do have that consumer in our environment.”
On keeping up with the trend cycle
“We have a Hot on Social fixture that we just started rolling out in a bunch of stores, and we’re just literally putting on it the things that are trending right now on social. It’s been a game changer for our beauty advisors.”
“What I’m really excited about is a return to maybe artistry in a different way with makeup. We’re seeing a lot of interesting stuff for new brands and also our existing brands. It’s sort of back to: Let’s help that consumer find the right product or do a trend that they might have seen on TikTok. How do we help that consumer achieve that look?”
