Now on display in beauty stores: teens driven by social media

Spurred in large part by TikTok to seek out beauty products aimed at adults, younger customers — teens and even pre-adolescents — are proving to be a mixed blessing for retailers like Sephora and Ulta.

Retail analysts say that as beauty stores attract a new generation of shoppers, they will need to ensure the experience remains satisfying for their older, core customers – including some who may not enjoy stores full of tweens and teens.

“There is so much luxury and prestige in the experience,” said Simeon Siegel, retail analyst at BMO Capital Markets. “Making an adult feel special is very different from making a student feel special, which is dramatically different from making a teenager feel special. It is important to make sure it appeals to all generations.”

Teens in the United States say Sephora is their favorite beauty store, surpassing Ulta a study published in October from the investment bank Piper Sandler. The study found that teen respondents would spend 23 percent more on cosmetics, skin care and perfumes in 2023 than the year before.

Teens and tweens, especially girls, have always experimented with and spent money on skin care and makeup. But this recent shift from drugstore mascara and blush to the high-end serums and lotions offered by Sephora and documented on TikTok is leading younger and younger customers to want to buy these expensive products once they see their friends doing the same.

But some dermatologists are questioning whether all the skin care and makeup products young shoppers are scrounging up at retailers like Sephora are necessary. They say that the skin is sensitive at that age and too many products can cause irritation. Ingredients like retinol or multi-step skin care routines may not be appropriate for teens, they note.

In recent months, social media has been abuzz with stories about jubilant and sometimes rowdy groups of high school students buying expensive serums and moisturizers.

While shopping at a Sephora in Las Vegas this year, an eighth-grader shared her skin-care routine, which included an expensive cream from Drunk Elephant and a watermelon-scented toner from Glow Recipe with chemical exfoliants called polyhydroxy acids, or PHAs. The girl said she didn’t know what those ingredients did, but that the product “smells really nice.” She asked her parents to buy her the toner after seeing it on social media.

Artemis Patrick, who takes over as CEO of Sephora North America on April 1, said the interest from younger customers was both an opportunity and a challenge.

“I think we at Sephora have a huge responsibility to make sure — as do our brands — to make sure that we’re educating this future consumer about what’s good for them,” she told a group of reporters this week.

Sephora is training its store staff on how to advise shoppers, Ms. Patrick said. She added: “They go out of their way to make sure the new consumer knows this is good for your skin.”

Ulta has also seen younger customers flood their stores. The company has added displays and educational guidance, including dermatologist recommendations, in-store and online, the company said.

“While we love seeing tweens and teens embracing skin care and establishing healthy beauty rituals early on, we want them to interact with this category responsibly and have access to information about the best solutions for their skin care needs,” said one Ulta representative in a statement.

Ms. Patrick is acquiring Sephora, which is owned by LVMH, as the company not only experiences an influx of younger customers but also expands its presence in suburban areas. Ms. Patrick, 52, is currently president of Sephora’s North America region and has been with the retailer for 18 years.

Since the start of the pandemic, as people increased their spending on makeup and skin care, Sephora has maintained double-digit growth in its e-commerce business, Ms. Patrick said. Traffic in stores has also increased, which she attributes to TikTok and the company’s advertising.

Over the past three years, the beauty retailer has sought to expand beyond urban areas by partnering with department store chain Kohl’s, where it now has small-scale stores in about 910 locations.

Kohl’s said it would have Sephora stores in all of its locations next year. On Tuesday, the department store chain said Sephora sales of Kohl’s stores generated more than $1.4 billion turnover in 2023.

Despite the enormous attention Generation Z is receiving, Ms. Patrick says, young people’s intrigue with beauty is nothing new: When she was studying abroad in the early 1990s, she asked a friend to bring her lipsticks from MAC Cosmetics in the United States .

Likewise, she said, her 13-year-old daughter — like many of her peers — is interested in skin care and carries products like Supergoop sunscreen in her backpack.

“It’s always existed – this kind of childhood obsession with your mother or your caregivers’ beauty products,” Ms. Patrick said. “The reality is they know what they know, and they know what they want.”

Madison Malone Kircher reporting contributed.