India is Rare Beauty's second biggest first week launch after US

Rare Beauty launched in 34 countries in less than two years.

"When I say that, it's hard to believe," said sales manager Kim Magee.

With Sephora as a business partner (and Space NK in the UK), the Southern California brand is now found in 36 countries. First North America, in the United States, Canada and Mexico, then Europe in all Sephora sites online and in physical stores in France, Spain and Germany. The Asia-Pacific region was next, followed by the Middle East, the United Kingdom and Brazil.

“Right from the start, we decided to take it one step at a time,” explained the director General Scott Friedman. “So we focused on North America, at Sephora in particular. But based on our conversations with their team primarily and the way we work together, we realized that Sephora was the one who could take the learnings and DNA of the brand we're building and help launch us into it. globally, especially once they created the global team. in San Francisco to use these best learnings and help North American brands navigate the nuances of their international markets. So once that happened, we were all in on it and that's how we decided we were going to go global."

"We would work with the [Sephora] global support team and local teams to plan a launch strategy," Magee added.

The most recent launch was in India on June 15, a large and high-potential market like Rare Beauty's second biggest first week launch after US demand was already here; prior to launch, India was the brand's second-largest Instagram audience after the United States, Magee said.

When founder and star of the brand Selena Gomez revealed the launch of Sephora India in a playful video on Instagram on June 1, he got over a million likes on Rare Beauty's account (which has 6 million followers). It is the brand's second most viewed and liked post on the platform. Doubling down on the action, on the same day, Gomez was seen in another video ad with beauty influencer Mrunal Panchal, which has nearly 12 million views and over 1.5 million likes and counts on Panchal's page. .

"This was by far our most engaging post we've ever had as a company ", Magee said.

In India, echoing other markets, consumers were what the brand expected: a largely equal amount of Gen Z Shoppers and Millennials.

"I know Sephora talks about this, how we bring this Gen Z customer into Sephora and grow this community for them and for us,” Magee said.

Along with the United States, the most successful markets were Canada, France and Australia.

"We really lean in and focus on these, and they do very well , great for us,” Magee said.

The biggest learning as the brand expands globally is forecasting, have - they echoed. The items – with Soft Pinch Liquid Blush as the hero, followed by Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil, Positive Light Liquid Luminizer Highlight, Perfect Strokes Universal Volumizing Mascara and Warm Wishes Effortless Bronzer Stick – are selling out faster than expected.

"It is very difficult to predict what will happen... We have tried to answer demand," Magee said. "And as we put them back in stock, we're now slowly starting to see what the real potential is because we haven't seen our baseline yet. I can tell you our last four weeks have been the two...