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If you’re reading this blog post, there’s a good chance that you recently spent an unpretty penny on the 2024 Sephora Insider Sale, which ran from November 1 to November 11. Or, given our friends at Sephora who are subscribed to this list, there’s even a chance that you were in some way involved with running the sale, in which case 1. Kudos, and 2. Can your boy get a discount code? Anyway, thanks for taking a break from swimming Scrooge McDuck style in a vat full of money and checking your inbox this morning.
For the rest of us, Sephora is way more of a drain on funds than a source of wealth. A beauty institution, the retailer has reached ‘cultural shorthand’ status, carrying a host of personal and collective associations. Also, it’s quite possibly the most beloved place in the world amongst tweens.
That last bit surprised me. As everyone else under the sun has opined, why do young folks need so many skincare products? Those are for the rest of us—after all, we’re the ones under the sun.
So for this blog post, I decided to dig a little deeper into the social discourse around Sephora. What better way, after all, to honor that recent sale? Plus I’ve been looking for more Gen Z readers, so be sure to forward this to your skincare-obsessed younger cousin. That would be very (checks notes) bussin’ of you.
The Top Brand of All Time (of the Week): Sephora
You’re not going to believe this, but in the course of my research, I found that Sephora—get this—has grown over the last several years.
Sephora EMV: 2018 - 2023
It’s important to note—and reassuring for the rest of us—that it wasn’t always smooth sailing for Sephora. The brand took a pretty notable dip in 2021, and it wasn’t until 2023 when we started seeing that good, dramatic growth we all know and love. That growth has continued into 2024, by the way: from January to September 2024, Sephora pulled in $1.1B (with a B) EMV, a 32% YoY surge. And that’s before the sale, plus Black Friday/Cyber Monday, holiday activations, and all the other wonderful EMV that Q4 always brings.
But community size tells a different story:
Sephora Community Size: 2018 - 2023
There’s steadier growth here, with no dip in 2021. But despite earning mentions from more creators than ever before, those mentions weren’t necessarily resulting in more EMV, engagements, or impressions. Clearly, several things changed.
I think you can predict at least one of those sources of change: our friends at TikTok. As it has for many other brands, the short-form video platform rewired Sephora’s ecosystem, going from a minor contributor to an essential component of the brand’s creator strategy.
Come away with me on a journey through the past, and see how TikTok’s role in Sephora’s digital presence has shifted over time:
Sephora EMV & TikTok EMV: Jan 2020 - Sept 2024
Seen this way, Sephora’s annual total EMV and TikTok EMV appears to rise in tandem, at least until we get to 2024. Note that this graph is just measuring January to September 2024, so while the line representing Sephora’s total EMV goes down YoY, we’re expecting that to boost back up in 2024. Meanwhile, the line representing Sephora’s TikTok EMV goes up from 2023 to 2024 despite that missing quarter. In other words, even before we factor in all of the brand’s expected Q4 activity, Sephora has already generated more TikTok EMV through Q1-Q3 than it did in all of 2023.
TikTok’s increased role can be seen most clearly when we look at the evolving (read: growing) percentage of Sephora’s EMV that the platform has driven over the years:
Sephora EMV & TikTok EMV: Jan 2020 - Sept 2024 by Year
Since 2020, Sephora’s EMV has doubled, while TikTok’s share of that EMV has multiplied 10x. I’m not qualified to give financial advice, but I am qualified to give hypothetical financial advice, so: if either of these stats were stocks, you would probably want to consider buying them.
(I mean, Sephora is technically a stock, but I’ll leave this to the professionals.)
What accounts for this TikTok dominance? As always, there are several factors:
Brands Love Sephora, and Sephora Loves Them Back
When I look at the top-performing content for Sephora, on TikTok or other channels, one thing stands out: just how much of this content is being authored by the owned social accounts of various beauty brands. If they have a new product to promote, or a new initiative to spread the word about, these brands will flock to Sephora to do so.
An astounding seven of Sephora’s top 10 EMV-drivers from January to October 2024 were brands. I did a quick analysis of other retailers, and take it from me—that’s not a dynamic that’s repeated anywhere else.
Top EMV-Driving Brands for Sephora: Jan - Oct 2024
You’ll note—because nothing gets by my readers—that many of these brands are in the skincare space. This is where the picture started coming together for me.
More Skincare = More TikTok
As a category, skincare sees a preponderance of content on TikTok relative to other categories like cosmetics and haircare. Many of the top skincare brands in CreatorIQ’s database tend to boast upwards of 50% of their EMV stem from TikTok as a channel—a notably higher rate than brands in other categories. Consumers’ and creators’ stronger association between Sephora and skincare at large has no doubt helped the retailer gain a key advantage on TikTok.
More and more frequently, much of brands’ most impactful campaign-based content lives on TikTok. While we see this across all verticals, this is especially true for skincare brands, which often launch new products via a concerted TikTok-based campaign featuring unboxing and first-reaction tutorials. An increasing number of beauty brands are adopting this practice, and I see it a lot across skincare and cosmetics.
For Sephora’s January to September TikTok haul alone, ‘#ad’ drove nearly $40M EMV—roughly 10% of the platform’s total EMV from January to September 2024.
You Know, For Kids!
Yes, that’s a reference to The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) in a contemporary blog post (2024). I’m nothing if not hip to the trends.
I’m not nearly as hip as Sephora, though, which as I’ve said before might just claim the sought-after title of Gen Z’s favorite brand. It’s not just media hype: when we look at creators’ posts about Sephora from January to September 2024, we can see a clear rise in content commenting on the trend.
Most of these posts are tongue-in-cheek skits about Sephora locations being overrun with tweens, though there were also a few genuine pleas and prayers for staff members forced to deal with hordes of skin-savvy adolescents. Sometimes it even seemed like these creators were a little annoyed that their spotlight as skincare experts was being stolen by children, which is an understandable reaction, but still pretty funny.
Mentions of the ‘Sephora Kids’ trend drove $13.4M EMV on TikTok alone during this time period, collecting a total of $30.9M EMV across all platforms. By leaning into its youth appeal, Sephora has helped perpetuate the phenomenon, increasing its name recognition and putting the brand at the forefront of the zeitgeist.
Anyway, that’s it for this week, folks. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta go buy a moisturizer recommended by a 10-year-old. See you next time!
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