Sephora Brings Its Beauty Advisor Experience Into ChatGPT
Sephora has launched an app inside ChatGPT, becoming one of the first major beauty retailers to embed its product discovery and advisory experience directly into an AI platform. The U.S. pilot, announced on March 24, allows ChatGPT users to ask beauty questions and receive curated product recommendations, with plans to expand globally and eventually enable full checkout inside the chat.
How the Experience Works
Users interact with the Sephora app inside ChatGPT by typing beauty-related prompts such as “Sephora, help me find a foundation for dry skin.” The app surfaces product recommendations drawn from Sephora's catalog and beauty knowledge base. Shoppers who choose to link their Beauty Insider loyalty account receive personalized recommendations based on their profile preferences and purchase history.
Existing loyalty rewards and member benefits, including free shipping promotions and product samples, are accessible through the experience from launch. Payments and checkout directly within the ChatGPT interface are coming in a future update, which would allow users to complete their entire purchase without leaving the conversation.
The integration runs on the Agentic Commerce Protocol, the infrastructure OpenAI developed with Stripe that enables retailers to share product data directly with ChatGPT. Other retailers already using the protocol include Target, Nordstrom, The Home Depot, Best Buy, and Wayfair.
Related reading: Target Tests Advertising in ChatGPT as OpenAI Launches Ads for Free Users
Why Sephora Is Making This Move
Sephora's global chief digital officer Anca Marola framed the launch at Shoptalk Spring as a response to how consumer behavior is shifting. “The customer has never had this much opportunity and this much choice at his disposal,” she said. “So the stake for brands and retailers is: how do you remain that trusted beauty adviser for them, no matter the channel?”
For Sephora, the answer is being present where decisions are being made rather than waiting for customers to arrive at its own platforms. Nick Turley, head of ChatGPT at OpenAI, confirmed the direction: “ChatGPT is increasingly becoming a starting point for how people discover products and make decisions.”
Beauty is a natural fit for this model. The category has always depended on consultation and personalization, and consumers are already using tools like ChatGPT to ask about skincare routines, compare products, and build regimens. Sephora's app connects that intent directly to its 80 million active Beauty Insider members worldwide, giving the retailer a way to surface its loyalty data at the point of discovery rather than only at checkout.
Related reading: Amazon Gets 54% of ChatGPT E-Commerce Referrals
What It Means for the Broader Market
Sephora is not alone in the space. Glossier and Skims are also available through ChatGPT, and other major retailers have built dedicated ChatGPT apps. But Sephora's scale and the depth of its loyalty data make this integration more significant than a basic product feed. The ability to personalize recommendations based on a shopper's existing Beauty Insider profile moves the experience closer to the in-store advisory model Sephora has built its brand on.
The launch also fits into a broader pattern in beauty retail. As BeautyMatter noted, beauty is emerging as one of the primary testing grounds for conversational commerce, with AI interfaces increasingly acting as the entry point to product discovery rather than search engines or social platforms. For retailers watching from the sidelines, Sephora's move signals that presence inside AI platforms is becoming a distribution priority rather than an experiment.
Sephora and OpenAI said they are also exploring broader collaboration across Sephora's global operations beyond the consumer-facing app, though no details on those initiatives have been shared.
