In March, Los Angeles-based fragrance brand Dedcool launched its latest perfume: Mochi Milk. The timing was well-planned, not just because of the ongoing demand for off-beat gourmand perfumes and all things milky beauty, but because the launch came just a few weeks before the spring Sephora Savings Event, which runs from April 4 to April 14. Mochi Milk is exclusive to Sephora and Dedcool’s DTC channels, but it’s only during the biannual Sephora sale that members of Sephora’s Beauty Insider program can get the scent for up to 20% off.
“[The sale] is anticipated by nearly 40 million beauty reward members, which is insane to think about,” said Dedcool founder Carina Chaz. “We sold out [of Mochi Milk] the first two days that we were stocked, and we [replenished] inventory just in time for [the Beauty Insider sale]. We did see a halo for our other products. So we’re having to ensure that all SKUs from across the range are in stock for BI, because you never want to miss out on sales.”
Sephora stages its sales twice a year, typically for roughly a week in April and again in November. During that time, members of its loyalty program can get rare discounts on brands ranging from Dedcool to Nars, with VIB and Rouge members, who spend at least $350 a year and $1,000 a year, entitled to a 15% and 20% discount, respectively. In its 2024 annual report, LVMH cited €18.26 billion ($19.95 billion) in revenue for its selective retail division, which includes Sephora, and cited the beauty retailer as achieving double-digit growth that year.
Sephora determines the discount tiers available to its loyalty members, and it also funds the discounted price. That makes the Sephora Savings Event a win-win for brands not only to keep regular buyers stocked on their favorite staple products, but also to acquire new customers — particularly for newer brands that have yet to break past more established names. And for Sephora, the sale is key to keeping its more than 40 million loyalty members returning to the retailer, particularly when growing beauty outlets like Amazon Prime or TikTok Shop offer steeper discounts.
“Our loyalty program, along with the Sephora Savings Event, fosters long-term customer loyalty by offering exclusive benefits and evolving beyond traditional discounts to include gamified challenges throughout the year and personalized experiences like our Rouge Celebration Event. To continue driving excitement during the promotion, we also introduced new elements like in-store brand events, a Gift with Purchase available in store, and exclusive first-access product drops for our Rouge members,” Emeline Berlind, svp and gm of loyalty at Sephora, told Glossy in a statement. “Our goal, in all that we do, is to continue to attract new customers, while deepening engagement with our most loyal members, providing them with unbeatable value and a unique shopping experience, and our Sephora Savings Event is a true testament to how we’re bringing that to life.”
Successfully leveraging the sale, however, means keeping a tight eye on inventory and capturing eyeballs ahead of the event with in-person activations and new products.
“Just for a few days every year, [the sale] lowers that barrier of entry to give people that chance to try something that maybe they couldn’t afford before,” said Michelle Ranavat, whose South Asian-inspired skin-care brand Ranavat arrived at Sephora in 2022. She said her Brightening Saffron Serum quickly sold out during her first experience at the Sephora sale, leading her team to stock up on inventory for future sales periods. “We absolutely do not want an out-of-stock situation. … If people want the product, we want to give it to them.”
While a sold-out product can make for a compelling headline, selling out during the Sephora Savings Event means leaving sales on the table during what may be one of the biggest sales jumps of the year.
“April is basically our Christmas,” said Gina Whitehurst, vp of sales for Tower 28. “The revenue opportunity is almost equal to what we see in November and December.”
To prepare for this April’s sales event, Tower 28 launched Pali Punch, a limited-edition shade to its powder blush line up and will host in-person events such as pop-ups at Sephora studios in major cities like Los Angeles and Houston.
One of the newest brands to Sephora is the body-care brand Soft Services, which arrived at the retailer in 2024. Now participating in a third Sephora Savings Event, Soft Services co-founder and CEO Rebecca Zhou said the brand expects to see a 5x jump in sales during the period, and has even seen the brand crack the top three in the body-care category during the sale.
To prepare for the sale, Zhou said her team has worked to update its product pages on Sephora.com and added a store locator tool to its own website for customers to identify Sephora locations where the brand is stocked. But keeping product in stock is still the biggest challenge.
“Inventory planning, to be quite honest, has been the most important piece with planning. With our first sale, we had nothing to go off of,” said Zhou. “Now we have two seasons, so we have a sense of the overall lift. There is still a lot of forecasting work that needs to be done because, in both sales, we had SKUs sell out. So at the highest level, we saw a 5x lift, but maybe the lift should have been even higher, had we actually had those products in stock the whole time.”
For brands like Soft Services and Ranavat that straddle the luxury category — Ranavat’s Brightening Saffron Serum sells for $135, while Soft Services’ Theraplush retails for $62 — Sephora’s predictable and limited discount windows make it an attractive retail partner for maintaining their prestige positioning.
“There is a subconscious element that goes with it,” said Ranavat. “If you are able to discount for 50% time and time again, is your product really worth it?”
Sephora’s spring sale comes on the heels of Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty, which offered up to 50% off, and Bluemercury’s spring sale, which offers 20% off spending of $200 or more. Amazon’s Big Spring Sale ran from March 25-31 and offered up to 20% off beauty products like CosRx Snail Mucin and Shark hair tools. Select brands on Amazon have maintained discounts even beyond the official sales period.
“I would say core to the Sephora strategy is not to really be promotion-driven, as a differentiator from some of their competitors. Because of that, the savings event is really successful,” said Zhou. “There’s a lot of complexity in managing that pricing strategy for the customer. We’re always trying to make sure we’re not adding another layer to the set of choices a customer needs to make. It’s more like, ‘Do I like this product? Do I need this product? Let me get this product.’ Versus, ‘Let me triage using four different places the best way for me to get this product.’”
Soft Services is currently exclusive to Sephora and its own DTC channels. But for brands available outside of Sephora, maximizing their relationship with the retailer can also mean foregoing other sales opportunities.
“We’re not with a million other retailers because every other retailer has their own promotional event. We don’t participate in Prime Day,” said Ravanat, whose brand is stocked on Amazon. “It is important that if we’re going to sign up with Sephora, we know that their customer is trained for this [sale] moment. This is something you just have to commit to as a brand.”
And with tariffs and rising inflation threatening to upend the prices of beauty products, Ranavat said April’s sale may be especially attractive to consumers looking to stock up on their favorite products.
“It is nice during the sale to be like, ‘I don’t see myself giving up these things. I don’t know what is going to happen to prices in this day and age, and I may want to stock up,’” she said.
