Rare Beauty Shopify case study
How SDG built Rare Beauty's Shopify storefront as a digital flagship for product discovery, community storytelling, and launches that move effortlessly between the physical and digital worlds.
Overview
Rare Beauty is a mission-driven beauty brand founded by Selena Gomez, built around self-expression and a more welcoming conversation about beauty and mental health. SDG built the Shopify storefront that brings its products, education, and community together.
The experience needed to feel approachable without losing the precision shoppers expect from complexion and color commerce, and flexible enough to support the intense attention around every launch.
The challenge
Beauty discovery is visual, personal, and increasingly mobile. Rare Beauty needed a storefront that could clarify shade and product choices, tell a larger mission-led story, and move fans from high-energy launch moments into a simple purchase path.
- Keep product education and brand storytelling connected.
- Design for a large, highly engaged mobile audience.
- Support major launches without turning the core experience into a campaign microsite.
- Create a foundation that could extend into new Shopify surfaces.
The solution
SDG delivered a Shopify storefront that gives product, content, and mission equal weight. A modular merchandising system lets new launches feel distinct while preserving a consistent and recognizable shopping journey.
That platform has since extended into Shop-powered experiences, including the debut of Rare Eau de Parfum through scratch-and-sniff billboards and geo-gated sample ordering in New York City.
The outcome
Rare Beauty can move from education to anticipation to transaction inside one connected commerce ecosystem. Shopify's published fragrance activation shows that foundation working beyond the website: fans smelled the product in person, scanned locally gated QR codes, and ordered an exclusive pre-launch sample through Shop.
On the record
Shopify documented Rare Beauty's physical-to-digital fragrance launch:
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