Sephora, the wide-reaching consumer goods retailer, has launched an e-commerce portal for Vietnamese customers, but has revealed no plans for physical stores in Vietnam.

After a five-month trial, the French maker of cosmetics, skincare, fragrances and beauty products will allow Vietnamese to buy products online and have them shipped across borders. Under the system, products will ship directly from an official Sephora warehouse in Singapore to consumers without the need for a middleman. Before this set-up, people in Vietnam in search of the popular global brand had to rely on unapproved online retailers and physical stores with no effective way of verifying the products or prices.

The arrival makes sense considering Vietnam's booming personal care and beauty products market, with a 2021 value of US$2.3 billion. This figure is expected to hit US$2.45 billion this year. Around 90% of the local cosmetics market is dominated by foreign brands, with South Korea leading the way, followed by Europe and Japan. Vietnamese consumers are becoming more comfortable with online purchases in general, which also helps explain Sephora's strategy. 

Sephora's online retail option for Vietnamese has many locals hopeful for physical stores. They entered Southeast Asia in 2008, and now have more than 100 stores across the region and beyond in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Hong Kong, India and Indonesia.

[Photo by Deva Darshan via Unsplash]