What We Can Learn From Sephora To Enhance Our Customer Experience

Let's face it.  Traditional brick and mortar stores are having their lunch eaten.  Shopping centers are reinventing themselves to put more emphasis on dining, movies and entertainment as opposed to relying on Macy's, Bloomingdales, Sears or others as anchors.  Sephora also recognizes that the mall may not hold the attraction it once did despite the fact that it has approximately 400 of its sprawling cosmetic emporiums in malls around the country.  Sephora's success has been well documented.  Consumers are met with rows and rows and shelves and shelves or products when they cross the store's threshold, not dissimilar to most DPH showrooms.  Sephora sales consultants offer advice and will even perform a full makeover at special stations, writes Elizabeth Segran in Fast Company.

Sephora is not about to rest on its successful experience with sprawling stores in shopping malls.  In July, it opened its first boutique on tony Newbury Street in Boston, name Sephora Studio.  The new concept store is much smaller than its shopping center counterparts. 

The experimental store in Boston is Sephora's response to changing consumer habits.  Sophia believes that many of its existing and potential customers don't want to schlep to a suburban shopping mall. They want  to buy closer to home quickly.  That's why Sephora picked Newbury Street, because it is a shopping street destination in Beantown, not unlike Fifth Avenue in New York or Rodeo Drive in LA. 

Sephora understood that it could not merchandise the Studio in a similar fashion to a shopping center store.  It's strategy was to be extremely product selective.  Most of the product is makeup whereas at shopping center locations you will find perfume, skin and hair care products, tools and brushes and bath and body products.  The Studio features makeup stations to connect in-store beauty advisors with clients, build relationships and deliver a compelling customer experience. 

Sephora commented that the Studio locations are not designed to replace the mall stores, but rather to complement them.  The company's long-term goal is to establish as many as 80 Studios throughout North America.

Lessons for decorative plumbing and hardware showrooms:

• Have a plan to respond to the new shopping paradigm.  Time for most DPH customers is a precious asset.  Tout your ability to save time and ease stress based on your expertise designing new baths and specifying products for them.
• Less can be more.  If you search for farmhouse sinks on Houzz, there are 77,000 options.  One key to Sephora Studio's strategy is that it does not display all of its products, but the sales professionals are well versed in merchandise offerings and can make recommendations for products not on display that they will ship freight free to customers.
• What has worked in the past most likely is not as applicable to the present or future.  What can you and your team do to provide your customers with a more delightful in-person experience?  If you would like to receive innovative ideas for improving your in-store experience, attend the upcoming DPHA Conference, October 12-15.