Sephora to open Asia’s largest store in ION mall

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 19 Jun 2009

French beauty giant Sephora will soon be opening its largest store in Asia. The store will be opened in Singapore’s soon-to-be-completed ION mall and is part of the firm’s continued expansion in Asia.

Sephora is pumping in over S$4 million into the new store – double of what it spent on its first Southeast Asian outlet in Singapore’s Ngee Ann City shopping centre.

So far, the beauty retailer said consumer response has exceeded its expectations and with a growing Asian market, Sephora is planning to grow its presence even more.

Jacques Levy, CEO of Sephora, said: “We are looking at expanding in Asia, but I cannot tell you when because we are looking at the opportunities we will have on other markets.

“ION for us is a big expectation – it will be the largest store in Asia. We will open another big store in Beijing in September in Wangfujing… but it’ll be a little smaller than the one in ION.”

Sephora already has 60 stores in China.

“In ION, since we have space, the customer will have a lot of new beauty experiences – the brow bar for example,” said Levy.

The beauty and cosmetic chain is optimistic about the year ahead and it will be implementing competitive pricing strategies and enhancing consumer experience in order to weather the current recession.

Levy said: “We experience good growth or at least fair growth. What we are doing right now is taking market share from our competitors. I think the customers go to the concept they like and we like to give them an enjoyable concept.”

Sephora has over 1,000 stores in 24 countries around the world.