Sephora and consumer intelligence firm NielsenIQ are joining forces amid a competitive beauty retail landscape.
They have unveiled a strategic collaboration to provide a more comprehensive view of the beauty landscape in North America, which will in turn help inform some of the beauty retailer’s decisions.
According to a statement Tuesday, the collaboration will leverage NIQ’s expanded omnishopper and digital purchases solution capabilities to better understand shifts in consumer buying behavior across both online and offline channels.
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“At Sephora, our beauty community is the heart of our business, and we are constantly seeking out forward-thinking partners to help us better serve our clients throughout their shopping journey with us,” said Ryan Oto, vice president, business intelligence and analytics at Sephora. “This partnership with NielsenIQ is a strategic leap forward in how we listen to our beauty consumers, elevate insights across every touchpoint and deliver on the future of beauty retail.”
The announcement comes as Amazon’s ongoing push into prestige beauty continues to ramp up pressure on beauty retailers, including Sephora, Ulta, department stores and more.
During an earnings call in April, Cécile Cabanis, chief financial officer of Sephora parent LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, said of the beauty retailer: “In the U.S., we have a bit less momentum when it comes to e-commerce, especially because Amazon is being very aggressive, and being aggressive is mostly regarding price. And we try to avoid this technique.”
Ulta Beauty executives said they had never seen such a competitive beauty environment, resulting in it losing market share for the first time in 2024.
NielsenIQ’s expanded Omnishopper, launched in January 2025, includes a 250,000-strong consumer panel. Through the combined Omnishopper and Digital Purchases lens, Sephora will gain insights into in-store and online shopping trends and preferences across NIQ’s comprehensive coverage of mass drug, specialty, e-commerce and social channels, the statement said.
“This data sharing partnership unlocks access to a new level of insight into the prestige beauty space, including expansive point-of-sale coverage of Sephora’s omnichannel business, increasing NielsenIQ’s total coverage of beauty,” added Jacqueline Flam, senior vice president of beauty, drug & OTC retail for NielsenIQ.