Sephora opens new store in Linden Woods

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This article was published 01/05/2021 (1589 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sephora furthered its foothold in Winnipeg on Friday, opening a third location in Linden Woods on Kenaston Boulevard.

The move comes after a slow year for the beauty industry, in which sales migrated online in droves.

As a result of widespread lockdowns and restrictions, people spent less time in workplaces, at restaurants or other public spaces.

That meant less reason to apply foundation, try a smoky eye or pop open a new tube of lipstick.

“We’ve seen sales decline in 2020 about 17 per cent in Canada,” Alecsandra Hancas, beauty analyst at The NDP Group, a company that analyzes market trends.

Before that, said Hancas, the industry as a whole was growing. In fact, that was the first time Hancas said she’s seen the industry decline.

Recent months have provided the industry a glimmer of good news, however. Early March saw the first weekly increase — of three per cent — in weekly sales since November.

In the short term, Sephora’s decision to open a new store may seem strange, since the pandemic has driven sales out of physical stores and into the digital realm.

Online sales blew up in 2020, increasing by a whopping 56 per cent.

“That’s unprecedented,” said Hancas. “We’ve never seen that for beauty.”

The overarching context, of course, is online sales shot upward in many industries, also driven by the new consumer habits of pandemic shoppers.

Canadian e-commerce grew 20.7 per cent overall in 2020, raking in just over $52 billion, or 8.1 per cent of retail sales.

But even with the beauty industry outpacing overall online sales by more than double, Hancas said she expects consumers to continue trickling back into brick-and-mortar stores.

“Consumers love to interact with the product,” she said. “They love testing the product. They love the beauty advice.”

Besides that, she said, there’s another driver into physical stores — something for which many people are pining.

“There is a social aspect to shopping in store as well,” she said. “We’re all looking forward to it.”

One part of the shopping experience that Hancas expects to enjoy maintained online success is replenishment.

Once people get into stores, test out the products and find what’s right for them, Hancas expects at least a portion of those who’ve become accustomed to online ordering will continue restocking their supply online.

Hair care products have been recovering quicker than any others, and with a healthy stock at Sephora, that should help sustain them until people start drifting through their doors in larger numbers.

business@freepress.mb.ca