Sephora is rolling out store quiet hours globally to promote a “more peaceful and calmer shopping environment,” the company said earlier this month. The beauty retailer’s stores will turn down music and adjust screens at specified times.
"The initiative was shaped by listening to the neurodiversity community, including experts such as Open Inclusion and Purposeful Futures, but also internal [employee] resource groups," the company said in its announcement, adding that "most of neurodivergent shoppers say quiet hours significantly improves their experience."
The company’s rollout follows a pilot phase that included 32 stores across eight markets. Ninety-percent of customers said they think the quiet hours make Sephora stores more inclusive.
“With Quiet Hours at Sephora, we provide a beautifully calm atmosphere where clients feel welcome, allowing them to shop at their own pace, find and purchase the products they love,” Global Chief Marketing Officer at Sephora Deborah Yeh said in a statement. “Quiet Hours at Sephora is one meaningful step in our ongoing commitment to building more welcoming environments for our employees, consumers, and communities — and we know there is still much more to learn and do.”
Mass retailer Walmart added sensory-friendly store hours to its U.S. and Puerto Rico store fleet in 2023. Between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., the company’s locations turn off the radio, lower the lights and change the TV walls to static images, per an announcement at the time. Walmart confirmed this effort is still active in an email to Retail Dive on Thursday.
Sephora in 2025 announced it was in the process of redesigning its entire North American store fleet. Some stores “will get major redesigns, and some will get minor,” Artemis Patrick, president and CEO of Sephora North America, told an audience at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show conference in January last year. The beauty retailer has over 700 stores in North America.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include comment from Walmart.
