Sephora is expanding its in-store beauty tools selection by rolling out Canopy’s portable humidifiers and showerheads to over 100 of its doors nationwide.
The brand’s partnership with Sephora kicked off in 2022, when it introduced the first humidifier carried by the beauty specialty retailer on its dot-com platform. Canopy has since injected newness into the partnership by introducing exclusive product colors and aroma kits. From 2023 to 2024, the brand’s product assortment increased 88% on Sephora online.
Canopy faced two major hurdles in its effort to move from screens to stores at Sephora. One is that the brand’s bedside humidifier, its hero product, is a seasonal purchase. According to co-founder and president Justin Seidenfeld, it generates “strong sales” during the winter, but a “lower selling velocity” in the spring and summer. The other is that the item has a large footprint on shelves. The over 100 Sephora doors Canopy is entering contain beauty device linears or merchandising areas dedicated to beauty tools.
The brand’s product diversification beyond humidifiers helped its bid for store placement. In 2023, it launched a filtered showerhead designed to remove chlorine, heavy metals and other contaminants from water to support healthy hair and skin. Showerheads have a smaller physical footprint than humidifiers and don’t experience sales seasonality.
In the first quarter this year, Canopy’s filtered showerhead made its debut on Sephora’s website, and the brand reports its sales performed well. Overall, its filtered showerhead line has seen 200% year-over-year sales growth.
Canopy also released a portable humidifier in the first quarter this year, and the product sealed the deal for a Sephora store rollout. The brand’s $150 overhead and handheld showerheads, $100 portable humidifier and two $40 aroma kits are a part of its in-store Sephora range. The aroma kits were created in partnership with skincare brand Rituals and Drybar co-founder Alli Webb, who became Canopy’s president in 2022.
Seidenfeld describes Canopy’s filtered showerhead and portable humidifier as “very much a collaboration” with Sephora. “This was an ongoing discussion around how we could address those pain points,” he says. “These were two products plus our handheld showerhead, which we recently launched, meant to overcome those hurdles that they voiced to us.”
Getting the green light for stores is a significant milestone for a brand, but brings its own set of challenges, particularly if it involves product formats that customers aren’t that familiar with. For its in-store debut at Sephora, Canopy built custom fixtures for each of the over 100 doors it’s in. The fixture displays feature products that customers can touch and educational information, including before-and-after photos communicating the beneficial impacts Canopy’s products have on people’s skin and hair.
“It’s going to be really unique in that…we’re the first humidifier in-store that they’ve ever merchandised. We’re the first filtered showerhead products for in-store that they’ve ever merchandised,”says Seidenfeld. “It’s going to be hopefully an eye-catching magnet for their customers in-store that’s different from what they’re seeing in the rest of the device section.”
Custom, eye-catching and unique don’t come cheap. Seidenfeld divulges Canopy has boosted its budget specific to Sephora 350%. The higher spend covers the fixtures, in-store training, influencer programs and advertising to drive traffic and awareness related to the brand’s Sephora launch.
Canopy’s goal is to enlarge its network of Sephora locations, but currently the brand is focused on achieving success in its initial 100-plus Sephora doors. Seidenfeld is in no rush to push the brand chain-wide. “We understand it’s a process,” he says. “We’re patient in that we want to make sure we’re doing everything right and not overextending ourselves or rushing into early.”
Besides Sephora, Canopy is sold at The Container Store, Nordstrom and Violet Grey. It’s sold on Amazon, too. Seidenfeld and co-founder Lucas Lappe established the brand in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, when people were locked down and trying hard to stay healthy, a dynamic that led to concerns about air quality in packed interior environments.
As previously reported by Beauty Independent, Canopy’s sales shot up 330% from October to November 2020. The brand secured $3 million in pre-seed funding over three rounds in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
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