How To Get Your Products Into Sephora, Part 1: Getting An In-Person Meeting

I had a tiny beauty brand that almost nobody had ever heard of. Then I got a 1-on-1 meeting with Sephora, and a few months later, my products were on the shelves of all 320 Sephora stores.

How can you get your products into Sephora? I’ve talked to other people who have gotten products into Sephora, and they mostly did the same things I did. 

So I wrote 4 articles breaking down how I did it. This article (Part 1) is about how to make your initial pitch and get a meeting. You can also read:

• Part 2, about how to make sure your meeting goes smoothly.
• Part 3, about how to negotiate a great deal. 
• And Part 4, about how to launch your brand in stores.

If you want a meeting with Sephora, here’s the best way to get it:

1) IS YOUR BRAND THE RIGHT FIT FOR SEPHORA?

My fragrance brand NomaTerra was a perfect fit for Sephora, because travel and on-the-go beauty products were trendy in 2013. 

But not all brands are a perfect fit for Sephora. For example, Sephora stocks products that are trendy right now. If you’re trying to start a new trend, you’re probably not a fit for Sephora.

Don’t worry if you’re not a fit for Sephora, because you’re a fit for somebody! If you’re not right for Sephora, make a list of your “dream retailers” that you would be a perfect fit for, and reach out to them.

2) KNOW YOUR POINT OF DIFFERENTIATION

Sephora wants products that are special. If you’re just like every other product out there, then you’re not that interesting. Why should they stock you over somebody else?

For example, my brand Nomaterra was all about travel. Each of our fragrances was based on the local plants that grew in different cities. That was our differentiating factor, and it made us fun and unique enough to get into Sephora.

If you can explain your product’s differentiating factor, you’ll have far better odds of landing a meeting.

3) FIND THE RIGHT BUYER FOR YOUR CATEGORY

Sephora has something called a “buying team”. They decide what products to put in their stores. If you want to get into Sephora, you need to meet somebody on that team.

Back when I was starting out, the best way to meet Sephora’s buying team was to pay thousands of dollars to go to trade shows.

You’ve got it a lot easier today. You can just hop on LinkedIn and find them. Just go to Sephora’s page, hit “people”, and then search for a term like “buying” or “purchasing”:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/sephora/people/?facetCurrentFunction=21 

4) SEND SAMPLES!

Once you’ve found the right people to reach out to, your next step is to send them a beautiful box with product samples. Sort of like this:

Here’s what you’ll want to include:

• Your full-sized products in your best packaging.
• Mini samples (for your buyer to share with friends and colleagues)
• A catalog and/or sales sheet with a brief story of your brand.
• A short, personal note addressing the buyer directly.

Make it pretty! Sephora’s buyers get hundreds of packages — so do everything you can to stand out. I like to wrap my boxes in a beautiful ribbon, lay my products in tissue paper of your brand color, and seal the sides with branded stickers.

When you ship your box, keep your tracking number. And check in on when your box gets there, so you know when to start following up.

(A couple more tips: use these Muji gift boxes, or these white boxes from the Container store. And spritz the inside of the box with something that smells nice!)

This part might seem intimidating, but don’t be afraid! Retailers like Sephora are actively looking for amazing products to share with their guests. So they want you to pitch them..

5) FOLLOW UP (BUT DON’T BE ANNOYING)

Once your package arrives, email your lead! They’re probably busy (just like you), so if they don’t respond, it’s probably because you got lost in the shuffle. If you send a polite nudge, you can sometimes put yourself back on top of their “to-do” list.

If you’re emailing someone from Sephora, their email address will usually be firstname.lastname@sephora.com. If you’re emailing somebody at another company, you can sometimes find their email address by doing some digging. (There are a few tools that can help you find people’s email addresses that offer free trials, like RocketReach.)

After a few days, call them. (You might be able to get their number with RocketReach.) If they don’t answer, don’t leave a voicemail — just try again later.

If they do answer, introduce yourself briefly, then mention the product you sent. Ask if they’ve had a chance to try it yet. And give them your 1-sentence pitch for why your products are special.

(They’re busy, so you won’t have a ton of time — get to the point quickly!)

If they haven’t yet tried your products, ask when would be a good time to follow-up. If they have tried your products, ask them if you can meet face-to-face.

Send them a follow up email every week for a month, unless you get a hard “no”.

6) SET UP AN IN-PERSON MEETING

If Sephora likes your product, they’ll invite you for a meeting at their San Francisco HQ.

If you’re wondering — yes, it’s worth flying all the way to San Francisco for this meeting! If this meeting goes right, it could vault your business into the stratosphere. So don’t do it on Zoom — go the extra mile to make sure it goes right.

Build a great PowerPoint presentation in advance, and rehearse it! (If you want to know how to create a great PowerPoint, read Part 2 of this series.)

By the way, do you want a short, step-by-step version of this article in checklist form? We made one. 

We’ll send you a copy — just enter your email below:

7) WHAT IF YOU DON’T HEAR BACK?

If you don’t hear back after a month, try following up a few months later. You never know — they might have changed their mind. (Or maybe they were just too busy the first time.)

If you have any good news about your company — like that you got featured in the press, or you just hit a new revenue milestone — feel free to share it.

Think about sending them another package. Especially if you’ve changed your product or your packaging. (If you really want to get fancy, think about designing some alternate packaging that fits their store’s brand.)

8) WHAT’S NEXT?

Congrats — you made it to the end of the article.

Growing a beauty business is harder than most people realize. You know what’s even harder? Doing it all by yourself.

If you need some help with branding, marketing, building a social media following, increasing your sales, and maybe even (gasp) getting into Sephora, I’ve got something that might help. You can learn all about it here.