Dive Brief:

• A few months after Sephora and Kohl's announced plans to open Sephora shop-in-shops, the two are providing more details on the assortment offered. The Sephora at Kohl's experience will include more than 125 prestige beauty brands in August, initially available in 200 Kohl's stores and online.

• The brands span categories including makeup, skincare, hair and fragrance, with 75% of the assortment exclusive to Sephora U.S. and Sephora at Kohl's, according to a company press release. The superstar lineup includes Drybar, The Ordinary, Drunk Elephant, Fenty Beauty, Tatcha, Milk Makeup, Tarte, Too Faced and Anastasia Beverly Hills, among many others.

• Sephora at Kohl's is set to expand to 850 locations by 2023, with a target of opening 400 in 2022. The experience features Sephora-trained beauty advisors, testing and discovery zones, a rotating assortment, and in-store returns and pickup at Kohl's stores.

Dive Insight:

Sephora and Kohl's are almost ready to roll out their shared beauty experience, and it includes a slew of blockbuster brands.

The deal, which was announced in December last year, came just a month after Ulta released plans to open shop-in-shops at 100 Target stores. Both have ambitious growth plans for their partnerships, with Ulta planning for "hundreds more" of its Target locations, and Sephora ultimately aiming for a presence in 850 Kohl's spaces. The Kohl's partnership also puts Sephora in more direct competition with Ulta, as both Ulta and Kohl's tend to be located in off-mall strip center or power center locations.

Sephora, meanwhile, is in the process of moving away from the mall, including through its break with J.C. Penney. Operating at Kohl's stores allows the retailer to reach a wider audience of customers than through just its stand-alone stores, and also provides certain benefits of a larger footprint, like returns and curbside pickup. Kohl's and Sephora will be integrating their sites so consumers can find the nearest Sephora or Kohl's with their products in stock. Purchases at Kohl's and Kohl's.com will also be eligible for Sephora's Beauty Insider rewards benefits. 

For Kohl's, it's also an opportunity to drive more traffic to its stores. The department store partnered with Amazon in 2017 to accept Amazon returns in stores and later expanded the reach of that partnership, which successfully brought in more customers, according to Kohl's CEO Michelle Gass last year. The deal with Sephora, likewise, holds an opportunity for the company.

"Our curated assortment features some of the most relevant and exciting brands in the industry today and is sure to excite existing customers and attract new customers to Kohl's," Doug Howe, Kohl's chief merchandising officer, said in a statement. "This game-changing milestone in our long-term partnership with Sephora is another proof point to how we are transforming Kohl's beauty business to become a leading experiential beauty destination."

The department store has been on a tear lately with a host of new in-store partnerships, including bringing in Tommy Hilfiger, Cole Haan, Eddie Bauer and Lands' End.