2700 stores, 35 countries, top class e-commerce website, thousands of employees and revenue worthy of more than millions. This is SEPHORA, one of the most popular beauty brand and cosmetics retailer over the world.
Started fromFrance, the Sephora business model is rapidly expanding. It offers several beauty products, of their own and from other high-end beauty brands making them more accessible to the users. Sephora is considered to be one of the best specialist beauty retailer center in the industry.
And it continues to grow!
The Sephora business model uses the 4 Ps for marketing. They are Product, Price, Promotion, and Placement. If you take a look at Sephora’s history you will find that the brand has used this strategy to succeed at a time when the industry was facing saturation.
1. Product strategy: According to a survey, users had a lot of queries as to how many brands does Sephora carry. There is a huge product range available with the company including more than 15000 products.
Some of the Sephora cosmetics products you can get include makeup kits, fragrances, lipsticks, eyeliners, and several other kinds of products. The Sephora marketing strategy also offers other services that can be accessed freely by the customers.
There is a Beauty Insider program available that is membership-based and it allows the members to reach the products at a discounted price.
2. Pricing strategy: Sephora is currently well-positioned as a qualitative and unique brand that provides good quality cosmetic products for affordable pricing.
The company concentrates on higher-end products instead of selling drugstore products. Although Sephora products can be expensive, the company does offer promotional prices for their loyal customers in the form of discounts and incentives.
3. Promotion strategy: The company relies heavily on word-of-mouth publicity by the consumers to try and foster loyalty.
They have developed an exclusive clients list over the years. They also offer tutorials to visitors, as a part of their in-store services. Sephora business model also provides tips and beauty talks to those that are interested.
4. Placement strategy: Sephora has its headquarters in Paris. But the company has more than 600 stores in the U.S. alone. The company firmly believes in developing a solid bonding between itself and the consumers. As a part of this, they allow the users to try out their products before buying them.
You can also get a piece of advice from skincare experts about the best products for your use. The Sephora business model improved its distribution network by partnering with JC Penny, which is a departmental store. Sephora took its products online in 1999.
What clicked?
Sephora entered the fulfillment wars in October 2021 with an introduction of its same-day delivery alternative. They charge a flat $6.95 fee for this service. This service is available 7 days a week in some regions of the U.S.
Sephora sources recently commented that when they surveyed their customers, they found that almost 50% of the clientele cited same-day-delivery to be the best option for delivery. There is also the alternative available to pay online and pick up the stuff from the store. It is also called the BOPIS method and it is available in all the stores.
As a way of improving their consumer engagement efforts, Sephora brought back their Live Beauty Help chat tool in 2021. The function of beauty live chat is to connect the consumers with the company’s beauty advisors for providing advice about the use of their products. This has been one of Sephora success factors.
If you are wanting to start your own beauty products business, take your cues from Sephora's business model.
