By Alaa Magdy
Sephora is a French brand of cosmetics; it was founded by Dominique Mandonnaud in 1970.
It offers beauty products including makeup, body care, hair treatment, nail colors and fragrance. Sephora operates approximately 1,900 stores in 29 countries worldwide. Sephora’s outstanding success is due to the company’s ability to keep up with technology and please its customers of 1970s and the customers of today.
Sephora has stated its successful story since the opening of a small perfumery in France. The perfumery was called Shop 8; the distinguishing quality of Shop 8 was mainly that it allowed customers to try its products before they buy them. The very idea of trying out products before making a purchase was innovative enough to attract many customers. Sephora launched a brand of its own name in 1995. Sephora went global after Louis Vuitton and Moet Hennessey had purchased the chain in 1997. The company opened up branches in Italy, Malaysia and Emirates, in addition to more than 250 stores in the U.S.
Sephora has been able to amaze its customers and gain their trust through its innovative products and technological advancement. Since its opening, the company has changed the cosmetics buying experience by replacing the old-fashioned counters of make-up with hands-on stores with the opportunity to try whatever product. Moreover, to enhance its technology, Sephora launched a new innovation lab, a team and facility with a main concern of “envisioning the future of retail for Sephora that we’re staying ahead of our clients and the different trends that are out there,” says Bridget Dolan, who is a digital marketing veteran of the company. Among Sephora’s new digital cosmetic products is Pocket Contour, a product that, using a mobile device, provides a tutorial on contouring (applying highlighting and shading makeup) to complement the user’s specific face shape. The customer who is using this app would be able to get a detailed tutorial on how to apply foundation and do contouring properly after uploading a selfie to the app. Also, Sephora is presenting Flash, which is essentially the company’s version of Amazon Prime. Flash is for an annual enrollment fee of $10, customers get free two-days shipping, or overnight shipping for $5.95. However, Flash is a free service for customers who spend $1000 or more at Sephora in a calendar year. Furthermore, Sephora launched a loyalty programme called Beauty Insider. It is a free rewards programme that allows customers to earn points on all their merchandise purchases. Each product bought adds a point to the Beauty Insider card or email. After a certain number of collected points, the customer gets rewards and gifts out of collecting these points. Beauty Insider is available in the US and Canada.
In addition to Sephora’s ground breaking success in Europe and the US, Sephora boosted its business by extending its chain to the Middle East. The company has 17 branches in Emirates, 3 in Qatar and 2 in Kuwait. More branches are spread around the Middle East with the intention to open up more of Sephora’s branches in the Middle East.
It is believed that what keeps a company’s business sustainable is its awareness of the customers’ needs. Likewise, Sephora has well-acknowledged what makes customers happy and engaged with beauty products.
