Retail | Global Cosmetic Industry

Selective retail continues to outperform many traditional luxury categories, with Sephora serving as a critical gateway for premium beauty brands and increasingly acting as a stabilizing force within LVMH's portfolio.

LVMH Beauty Holds Firm as Sephora Outpaces Luxury Slowdown, Fueling Confidence for Second Half

Sephora continued to gain market share globally, reinforcing its position as one of LVMH's most reliable growth drivers.

The retailer's new 2,691-square-foot Carnaby Street store in London departs from Sephora's larger destination formats by prioritizing convenience, localized merchandising and technology-enabled services for shoppers visiting during lunch breaks, meeting friends or exploring the city's retail districts.

Sephora Shrinks the Store, Expands the Experience with New Boutique Format

Customers can shop "Only at Sephora" brands—including rhode, Haus Labs, Makeup by Mario, Merit Beauty, Tower 28 and Yepoda—alongside a dedicated "Hot on Social" merchandising table highlighting viral brands.

Precision Systems: Closing the Efficacy Gap through Functional Packaging Architecture

Precision Systems: Closing the Efficacy Gap through Functional Packaging Architecture

From passive packaging to precision delivery, discover how beauty brands are closing the “Efficacy Gap” with smart microneedling, integrated LED therapy, and next-gen skincare technology designed to maximize real results.

July/August 2026

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July/August 2026

K-beauty's impact is firmly rooted in international markets, as shown by Olive Young's U.S. expansion.

Why K-Beauty's 53% Growth Is Forcing Beauty Brands to Rethink Innovation

While skin care rewards multi-SKU routine building, the hair care surface heavily rewards single-hero product positioning.

The Top 15 Brands & Retailers Dominating Beauty AI Citations

Bluemercury Names Kering Beauté Veteran Alex Choueiri CEO as Prestige Beauty Growth Accelerates

MOON: mascara in glass by Lumson and Ponzini

MOON: mascara in glass by Lumson and Ponzini

While influencers drive consumer excitement and feed AI recommendations, online sources that lead include Reddit, Who What Wear, Wikipedia, Sephora and Allure.

The Top Sites ChatGPT is Using for Beauty Recommendations

Reddit dominates as editorial and retail sites shape AI visibility. But that's not the whole story.

TikTok Shop is not simply drawing consumers away from traditional retailers; it is moving the traditional workings of retail itself—discovery, demonstration and community validation—onto a new and faster-moving platform.

The TikTok Takeover: How an App Ate the Lunch of Beauty Retail’s Elite

Generating $1.58B in sales, TikTok Shop is a competitive threat forcing Amazon, Sephora, and Ulta to completely rewrite the rules of commerce.

“What stands out in these findings is the clear convergence of digital and physical behaviors,” said Jacqueline Flam, managing director, beauty and health at NIQ. “Gen Alpha is highly fluent in AI and personalization, but they are using these tools to enhance discovery and build confidence, not to replace in-store experiences. For brands and retailers, this means creating connected journeys that link digital influence with real-world engagement.”

The Hybrid Generation: Why Gen Alpha Refuses to Choose Between AI and Stores

The future is interdependent by design, where AI, social discovery and physical retail form a single decision loop.

Precision Systems: Closing the Efficacy Gap through Functional Packaging Architecture

Precision Systems: Closing the Efficacy Gap through Functional Packaging Architecture

From passive packaging to precision delivery, discover how beauty brands are closing the “Efficacy Gap” with smart microneedling, integrated LED therapy, and next-gen skincare technology designed to maximize real results.

TikTok has cemented its role as a discovery channel, and its influence on Amazon search rankings means that virality on one platform now directly monetizes on another.

Beauty’s Digital Reordering: TikTok Shop Surges as Amazon Holds, But No Longer Dominates Growth

The retailer also demonstrated improving profitability, with gross margin expanding to 40.1% from 39.1% a year ago, reflecting stronger merchandise margins and lower inventory shrink.

9 Drivers of Ulta’s Q1 Growth (and a Times Square Flagship Teaser)

Growth was broad-based across channels and categories, with gains driven by both higher spending per visit and increased shopper traffic.

'Cyber liability insurance provides coverage for data breaches—hacking incidents, payment info exposure,' says Kenneth Hegel of Epic Insurance Brokers & Consultants. 'Especially important of you are storing any customer data or you sell DTC alongside retail.'

The Retail Insurance Rules Beauty Brands Can’t Ignore

"Rising insurance costs are changing how beauty brands operate in a pretty fundamental way."

Within the company’s operating segments, Sally Beauty Supply delivered the strongest performance. Segment sales increased 4.1% to $521.2 million, while comparable sales rose 2.5%, reversing declines seen a year earlier.

Sally Beauty Holdings Leans Into Digital Momentum as Q2 Sales, Margins and EPS Rise

The company said second-quarter results reflected “solid execution and the resilience of our operating model amid a dynamic macroeconomic environment."

Under the agreement, Pencil’s end-to-end AI content platform will be integrated across Coty Consumer Beauty brands—including CoverGirl, Rimmel, Sally Hansen and Max Factor—enabling creative and marketing teams to rapidly generate, test and optimize advertising assets across markets and channels.

Coty Bets Big on Generative AI as Pencil Partnership Pushes Beauty Content Into Real Time

Working alongside transformation and creative teams led by sister agency Jellyfish, Coty aims to operationalize large-scale content production.

The views generated on TikTok are translating into meaningful revenue lifts across DTC sites, Amazon, and brick-and-mortar retail through powerful halo effects.

The 15 Most-Viewed Beauty Brands on TikTok Shop

Why it matters: a correlation analysis using Charm’s TikTok Shop data revealed a clear alignment between TikTok engagement and performance across other retail channels.

Executives point to strong alignment between Rhode’s engagement-driven strategy and Sephora’s global platform.

Rhode Goes Pan-European: Sephora Expansion Marks Record-Breaking Next Chapter in Global Retail Push

Rhode is entering its next growth chapter with increased scale—and a clear mandate to globalize.

Ulta is pushing aggressively toward full-funnel integration, collapsing discovery, comparison and transaction into a single step within Google’s ecosystem.

Ulta Leans Into Google’s AI Checkout As Sephora Bets on ChatGPT Discovery

Retailers are racing to secure presence at the point of intent.