CENTRAL
The strategic ceiling
Brand, category framework and global commerce standards set at the centre — the baseline every market inherits.
All case studies
E-commerce
A digital strategy that reads as one Sephora — expressed in the UAE
Global Beauty Retail · Part of LVMH · UAE · Part of a global estate of 3,000+ stores
The challenge
Sephora had global scale and an operating rhythm that had to work in every market it entered. Central and regional teams were both moving fast — sometimes in the same direction, sometimes not. They wanted one strategy that respected local taste in the UAE and still played nicely with the global system.
The solution
We worked alongside Sephora’s leadership as a small, embedded partner across product, technology and delivery. Rather than hand over a slide deck, we helped stand up the operating model that would run it — who decides what, when central adapts, when local flexes.
Proof of work
What the customer actually experiences.
Reference imagery drawn against the same brand system the programme ships against — not a client screenshot, but a faithful reading of the surface.
The direction we took
Where we pointed the work.
The strategy on one page — where it converges, where it stays plural.
One Sephora. Expressed locally.
CENTRAL · GLOBAL · UAE · ONE OPERATING RHYTHM
GLOBAL
Standards, in motion
Global expectations flow through central and get expressed locally, on the ground — same Sephora, everywhere it lands.
UAE
One market, expressed locally
Search on Arabic keyboards, occasions that matter, loyalty behaviour reflecting how customers actually shop — the strategy lands the way the market reads.
OPERATING RHYTHM
Central adapts. Local flexes.
A working line between the two — decisions taken quickly, at the right level, without a committee. Local moves on customer moments without waiting for global sign-off.
How we shaped the work.
Step 01
Understanding the market
We spent time with the team mapping how customers in the UAE actually shop for beauty — what search looks like on Arabic keyboards, which occasions matter, how loyalty behaves. That work fed a strategy that reads as one Sephora, expressed locally.
Step 02
A blueprint the teams could ship
We prioritised the roadmap around measurable customer moments rather than internal projects, and drew the working boundaries between central and local teams — so decisions could be taken quickly, at the right level, without a committee.
Step 03
A strategy that keeps working
The strategy is now running. It moves quicker than the old one, adapts to local shifts without waiting for global sign-off, and gives Sephora a repeatable playbook for the next market they turn on.
Outcomes
What reached production.
One strategy
A plan that reads as one Sephora — central and local, in step
Quicker
Local shifts absorbed without waiting on global sign-off
A playbook
A repeatable operating model for the next market they turn on
AI-native, today
Where the same programme would go further today.
Run today, the same Sephora programme would add contextual personalisation to product discovery, a bit of predictive planning against local demand signals, and one or two carefully-scoped agent-assisted service workflows. The strategic muscle is the same. The operating leverage is materially larger.
Start here
Start with one thing that works.
A 60-minute working session with two of our engineers. You bring a delivery problem. You leave with a written assessment of where AI would help, where it would not, and what it would take to find out.
No pitch deck. No obligation.