Sephora is opening 850 mini stores at Kohl's locations in the next 2 years
- Sephora will open 850 retail locations in Kohl's by 2023, with the first 250 stores opening by fall 2021.
- These Sephora's will replace the beauty section in already existing Kohl's, along with the online beauty offerings.
- This news comes less than a month after Target announced a partnership with Ulta Beauty.
Sephora will open 850 mini stores in Kohl's locations by 2023, according to a joint statement from both companies.
The first 200 locations will be open by fall 2021, with the remaining 650 stores to follow. Sephora at Kohl's, as the companies are calling the locations, will take up 2,500 square feet and be "prominently located at the front of the store."
"We're going to be very loud about this," Kohl's CEO Michelle Gass told CNBC. "There's no question that [shoppers] will see Sephora from the exterior of the building."
According to a statement, the two brands have "very limited overlap" and this partnership will hopefully attract younger shoppers to Kohl's, and also bring higher-end beauty options to already-existing Kohl's customers who may not have a Sephora location close to their home. These stores will replace any beauty section in Kohl's locations.
Along with the brick-and-mortar stores, the Kohl's website will be revamped to featured the products that can be found inside these mini locations as well, but there's no word yet as to which brands will be available to purchase.
The employees at Sephora at Kohl's will be Kohl's workers trained by Sephora.
This news comes less than a month after Target announced a partnership with Ulta Beauty that will allow for over 100 smaller-scale Ulta stores to be built inside Target.
Even with this direct competition, Gass said there is no reason to worry about the other collaboration.
"Given the disruption in the marketplace, we have a real opportunity to introduce new, elevated brands to our customers," Gass told Fortune. "There's room for Kohl's."
Sephora already has a partnership with JCPenney for in-store locations, but the pandemic has led the brand to close 150 stores, some of which have Sephora locations.
While Sephora's parent company, LVMH, doesn't break out Sephora earnings specifically, other beauty brands have been affected by the pandemic as more people stay home. The silver lining for the industry, however, is that "above the mask makeup" is gaining popularity.