Alison Hahn is the Senior Vice President of Merchandising, Makeup & Fragrance at Sephora. In her role, Alison is responsible for curating Sephora’s best-in-class and highly differentiated makeup and fragrance products and brand assortment, one of the defining pillars of Sephora’s industry success.
Since joining Sephora in 2011, Alison has identified breakout brands such as Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez, GXVE, Haus Labs by Lady Gaga, FORVR Mood, KAYALI, and Ilia; and game-changing beauty trends including the launch of Next Big Thing, the rise of influencer and indie brands for the prestige retailer, as well as curating a unique assortment of classic, clean, and emerging scents. Most recently, Alison’s role greatly expanded to include leading Merchandising across all categories as Sephora embarked upon its hugely successful joint venture with Kohl’s. Under her leadership, Alison launched more than 100 brands at Sephora at Kohl’s and continues to build the momentum of Sephora’s prestige product assortment, which is currently available in more than 600 Kohl’s stores,
A people-first leader, Alison is responsible for step-changing the makeup and fragrance merchant teams to better respond to fast-evolving beauty landscape innovations with even greater agility. Alison also served as a key stakeholder in the creation, launch, and evolution of Sephora’s Mobile Color IQ technology, the groundbreaking multi-branded complexion matching service that scans the surface of skin and scientifically matches skin tone with exact foundation and concealer shades available at Sephora. As well, Alison has played an integral role in spearheading the growth of Sephora’s advancement in the “Clean at Sephora” category, no easy feat particularly for makeup and fragrance.
Alison’s innate instinct for trend forecasting coupled with her extensive experience in retail and merchandising has made her one of the most talented merchants in the beauty industry. A staunch supporter of promoting and mentoring female talent to be the leaders of today and tomorrow, this passion extends beyond Sephora’s walls as she continues to champion female-founded brands across both Makeup and Fragrance; and she supports rising talent via the NRF Foundation’s Student Program. Prior to Sephora, Alison’s 30-year career has spanned fashion, footwear, and home goods where she led merchandising for megabrands including GAP, Saks Fifth Avenue and Restoration Hardware. Alison grew up on the east coast but has called San Francisco home for 25 years.
