Sephora Joined TikTok Shop to Extend Its Curation. Week 1 Showed What It Gave Up

The beauty retailer brought curation to TikTok Shop, but its launch showed how algorithms reshape the customer journey.

EXPERT OPINION BY TEMILOLA AGBEDE

Illustration: Inc.; Photos: Adobe Stock

Walk into a Sephora and nearly everything on the wall has already been decided for you. Testers are grouped by skin concern, the new-brand section gets its own real estate, and a buyer signed off on every product that made the cut before a single customer ever touched it. That’s the whole pitch: someone with real expertise did the sorting, so the shopper doesn’t have........

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