The Sephora Marketing

• Choose a mid-size to large business with an E-Commerce site (public company)
• Choose between clicks-and-bricks (O to O) or virtual merchant - online only

Sephora

• Research the company’s size, global reach and multi-channel strategy

The Sephora chain includes approximately 2,300 stores spread over 33 countries worldwide, with an expanding base of over 430 stores across the Americas and it was acquired by LVMH in 1997, a well-established conglomerate based in Paris. The first Sephora store was opened in the year 1998 at New York’s Soho neighborhood. Sephora offers an “award-winning “website, Sephora.com, along with the Sephora to Go mobile app. Sephora launched its online shopping store in the year 1999 and into Canada in 2003. Sephora has established itself as “the world’s premier digital beauty destination and an international force in prestige cosmetics”.

• Provide a brief history of the company

Sephora is a French popular chain of cosmetics stores offerings to include cosmetic and beauty care products. The first store was founded in France in 1969. Sephora carries a variety of beauty products over 250 brands, including Make Up For Ever, NARS Cosmetics, YSL, and Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. Sephora also features its own beauty products including makeup, skincare, body, fragrance, nail color and haircare.

The name Sephora came form the Greek spelling of “Sephos” which means the most beautiful of wife of Moses. The Sephora logo is set a white “S” – shaped flame against a black background.

• Research and report on:

• Use of Paid Search and SEO (What are some high ranking keywords, etc.)

• Traffic (using an online tool such as Similar Web)

• Use of Mobile and other technologies (Beacons, etc.)

Mobile continues to be the fastest growing channel. Sephora believes in leveraging these meaningful consumer technologies to improve the shopping experience.

Mobile makes up an important part of Sephora’s marketing strategy. Up to 75 percent of Sephora’s traffic stems from mobile since Sephora did a lot to promote its mobile features. For example, Sephora allows customers to port their Beauty Insider card to Apple’s Passbook to view their points and allows to checkout through Apple Pay as payment option in its app. Moreover, consumer could use gift cards across mobile. It worked with smartphone to let shoppers suck the digital card right into Passbook.

In April 2015, Sephora launched its first Augmented Reality experience via its Sephora -To Go app. Shoppers could interview with beauty experts, product pages and product videos and other product-related information. A recent update to its app allows users to virtually try on more than 3,000 lipstick shades. Shoppers could take a photo or upload one in the app, from there they can swipe trough colors to try on, and the app can identify the face shapes and provide step-by-step guide on how to create a contoured look.

With over 4MM mobile app users, Sephora also uses beacons to present customers with in-store shopping experience, which is meant for consumers to use bar code scanning while they are in a physical store. In this mode, consumer can scan products to read reviews, ratings and purchase histories.

Also in-store, consumers with the Sephora app through Bluetooth beacons technology would received personalized messages, such as new in-store events, birthday alerts or loyalty program updates.

• Social Media presence

Sephora’s social media is more than successful for the business. It not only drives overall sales, but keeps people interested and updated. Their likes and followers will continue to grow. The makeup world would be a different place without Sephora and their social media.