Four Things Every Business Can Learn from Sephora
4 Roads Four - Four Things Every Business Can Learn from Sephora
Every beauty lover knows Sephora, and every business that cares about its customer experience can learn from Sephora.
If you don’t know Sephora, they began in France and wanted to change the model of beauty sales by putting customers first. Make-up and beauty products were locked away behind cases in old-fashioned department stores. Sephora shaped a more customer-centred approach with an ‘assisted self-service’ approach. Products were meant to be touched and tested, a unique approach at the time: try before you buy.
Today, the Sephora brand prides itself on its customer-centric approach. The business now employs 52,000 people in 34 countries in over 2,700 stores.
Brands from every industry can learn from Sephora, here are 4-Roads four, for you to get started with!
1 - Personalise Every Channel
With 2,700 stores, you might think that Sephora might focus more on its in-store service. However, the sales floor in a Sephora store isn’t called a sales floor, and sales associates are not simply that. The Sephora experience is theatre; the sales floor is the stage, and the staff are cast members. The goal of Sephora retail is to ensure that everyone feels like they belong.
With that, Sephora’s focus is beyond the in-store. As a brand, they have mastered the art of omni-channel integration. The experience for a customer online mirrors that of a person in-store. While you might not be able to physically try a product or ask an ‘actor’ for advice, Sephora has harnessed technology to allow customers to use AR to see how a product might look on their skin. Just like in-store, if you need more help or expert advice, Sephora Beauty Advisors are available for real-time product recommendations and shopping services via chat and video.
2 - Digital Everything
Sephora’s approach to in-store and online personalisation is digital first. Customers will experience the same technology in-store and online. Visit a store, and a Sephora ‘actor’ will take a picture of you. This picture is processed through Sephora’s Colour IQ technology, which is designed to help guide customers towards the right products for their skin type and colour.
In-store, you will then be guided to the recommended products and given the opportunity to try them. At home, the Virtual Artist within Sephora’s app will apply the products to you through AR.
Wherever you shop with Sephora, the digital application is the same and is there to support the customer and sales experience. This might not seem remarkable today, but the technology is ubiquitous – Sephora launched Colour IQ in 2012.
While a store isn’t open 24 hours a day, the online store is. Sephora has integrated chatbots built upon extensive knowledge bases that can provide customers with immediate assistance and answer questions beyond product availability and store locations.
The digitally-led approach to business in-person and at home creates a unique experience for shoppers that goes beyond the normal, building customer loyalty through a universal online and offline experience.
3 - Truly Social
Personalisation and digital-first principles fail if your business feels like every other business. Customers hate feeling as though they are talking to a corporate entity. Simply using Instagram and Facebook to communicate with your customers isn’t enough. Sephora understands this and created an online community for its customers.
This is a community built around the customers by a brand they love. At the time this article is being written there are 87267 members online right now. There are a total of 3,112,523 posts. Each of these interactions is helping Sephora to deepen its relationship with its customers, while the customers talk to and help each other out with product recommendations, skincare tips and share photos and results of themselves.
Customer care and support in an online community move beyond the normal in-store and online services and become social, with users helping each other.
4 - Customer Desire
Since its beginning point of moving beauty products out of locked cabinets into accessible parts of stores, Sephora has continued to innovate in response to its ever-changing customer desires.
Today, the make-up aisles in department stores feel dated; in a pharmacy, it is even worse; it can feel out of place. Sephora has created a shopping experience that identifies all the hurdles their customers faced and disliked and removed them.
A Sephora store is not just a place where you go to buy products. They match the desires of customers, to explore, to learn and to try. Customers entering a Sephora store will have an experience, if they want one, with tutorials available and digital tools that direct them to the best products for their skin.
4 Roads Final Thoughts
Sephora’s success in the retail industry is exceptional. The team’s forward-thinking approach to harnessing technology and creating unique experiences for their customers makes them stand out in a stagnant retail environment.
Every business can learn from its approach to omnichannel integration how to harness digital tools not just as an alternative but as an integrated way to serve its customers. Sephora provides an experience that customers desire outside of selling and has created a community where customers can connect with each other and the brand. To enhance your customer experience, improve engagement, and drive growth in any competitive market, look at Sephora’s lessons and invest in the right digital tools.