What it does: Manufactures and sells beauty products in retail.
Mission: “To create a welcoming beauty shopping experience for all and inspires fearlessness in our community.”
Size and presence: approximately 30.000 employees.
Best known for: Cosmetics, skincare, and beauty product retail store
The good bits: Free beauty products and employee discounts. Great training and flexible working arrangement for some roles.
The not-so-good bits: The workload can be tough and heavy at some point.
Sephora was founded by Dominique Mandonnaud in 1970 and launched in Paris in the same year. Nine years later, Sephora successfully opened 12 other stores. Mandonnaud was credited for designing Sephora’s ‘assisted self-service’, the experience many customers know to this day. He encourages customers to test the product in the store before they’re purchasing.
Then in July 1997, Mandonnaud sold Sephora to LVMH, and since then, Sephora managed to expand its store globally and added more products to their store. The company's headquarter is located in Paris, France. Sephora launched its first store in the U.S. in 1999 and now owns more than 500 stores all over America.
Sephora features a lot of high-end cosmetic and personal care products in its store. FENTI by Rihanna, NARS Cosmetics, Make Up For Ever, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Urban Decay, Lancome, Sunday Riley, Bobbi Brown, and YSL Beauty by Yves Saint Laurent are some popular brands sold under Sephora.
If you are interested and keeping up with beauty trends, Sephora will be a great place for you to start your career. Whether working in retail or working for corporate roles, many employees claimed to have a fun and exciting experience at Sephora, they’re also stating that they have great co-workers. The company openly supports the LGBTQ+ movement and values diversity within its workforce. Although, it is still a retail job, which undoubtedly will be demanding in some circumstances. There will be a struggle in dealing with customers and supplies.
The hiring process at Sephora commonly takes three rounds of interviews. After applicants get shortlisted, there will be a phone interview for screening, an interview with the hiring manager, and an interview in a group panel. Sephora regularly posted any vacant roles for retail stores and corporate jobs, and internship hiring schedules on its website, including the requirement for them. On average, the whole process will take approximately two weeks to a month. Retail jobs relatively take a shorter time than the corporate job hiring process.
Sephora operates hundreds of retail stores across America, however, career track paths in the company are varied. Besides retail-related jobs, graduates may find the roles they desire in the digital department, business operations, marketing, finance, merchandising, distribution centres, HR & education, and technology.
The company also offers 10 weeks internship program that allows students to get an invaluable experience to work with professionals in Sephora. Learning and contributing to real-world projects in the department they’re applying
Intern’s salaries at Sephora are ranging from $2.000 to $4.000 monthly. A product consultant receives approximately $2.000, a graphic designer receives $3.000, a marketing intern receives $3.000, a CRM analyst intern receives $4.000, and a finance intern may receive $4.000 up to $5.000 monthly.
In the meantime, full-time retail jobs’ salaries are ranging from $25.000 to $45.000 annually. And corporate jobs are relatively getting a higher salary. A merchandise planner may receive $121.000, a marketing associate receives $76.000, a distribution analyst receives $77.000, and a financial analyst receives $90.000.
Sephora manufactures and sells cosmetics, which undoubtedly will cause environmental issues in the manufacturing process. The company is aware of it and intended to reduce the damage by practising sustainability in its retail store, its headquarters, and its supply chain. Sephora has been an EPA Green Power Partner for seven years. Aside from that, all retail stores, offices, and distribution centres in the U.S. are powered by renewable energy.
Furthermore, Sephora aims to reduce 50% of its high-priority problematic chemicals in the next three years. To reach the goal, Sephora partnered with Novi Connects, ChemFORWARD, and the Environmental Defense Fund (EFD). All of them are experts in ‘green’ chemistry. As of recent development, Sephora managed to reduce 28,6% of products containing problematic chemicals.
Aside from its environmental initiative, Sephora declared to support diversity and fight racial bias within its business practice. As of 2020, Sephora carried several black-owned beauty brands at its retail stores.
In 2017, a customer filed a lawsuit against Sephora, claiming that she contracted herpes from the lipstick sample she tried from Sephora’s store. It was common knowledge that beauty product retail usually provides samples for customers to try on, to see the best shade of makeup product and test any desired quality from beauty products. Though Sephora and the said customer have reached a settlement in 2019, Sephora still denied the allegations that the herpes was coming from Sephora’s store.