Sephora opens new logistics center in U.S.

The leader in online sales of beauty products in the United States, Sephora has opened a new logistics center in Maryland to meet strong growth in demand. The state-of-the-art facility will provide exemplary service for customers of the Sephora online store.

Sephora has long been a pioneer in digital solutions, opening the foremost beauty site in North America in terms of the selection of products and brands in 1999. The trendsetting site has experienced annual sales growth in excess of 25% in recent years, reaching record peaks during high season periods around Thanksgiving and Christmas. To sustain this performance and ensure rapid deliveries throughout the year, Sephora needed to expand its distribution capabilities.

Since September 2014, all orders on the Sephora site shipped to customers in the Eastern United States have been filled from the new Sephora warehouse in Perryman, Maryland. Twice as large as the previous facility located a few kilometers away, the new center spans 60,000 square meters (655,00 square feet). It handles merchandise reception for all items sold on the site, identification, warehousing, packing and shipping for all products. Equipped with newest-generation technology, the center triples the speed at which packages transit through automated machines, boosting efficiency and doubling distribution capacity. Customers who make purchases on the Sephora site thus receive their products within three days. Starting in 2016, the warehouse will also ship inventory to Sephora stores in the Eastern United States.

The new logistics center to support online sales also significantly expands Sephora’s economic footprint in the region. With assistance from the state of Maryland, Sephora will guarantee jobs for the 400 employees from the previous site and expects to create up to 200 additional local jobs by 2017. The Perryman logistics center aims to be a benchmark in optimized distribution and offer excellent working conditions for employees. It will also contribute to the development of infrastructures and innovations to encourage similar facilities in the State. This win/win model benefits both job creation and the performance of the company’s logistics for e-commerce operations.