A Visit to Sephora: Design Review

Eva Solo
Eva Solo
Nov 4 · 6 min read
Shanghai, Huangpu, 淮海中路138号

Sephora is a beauty and personal care brand targeting to create an inviting atmosphere for a luxury shopping experience. Their newly improved manifesto reads “We Belong to Something Beautiful” and aims to encourage expression of creativity. Sephora was founded by Daminique Mandonnaud in 1970, France and since then has impacted the beauty industry worldwide with its innovative approach to makeup artistry and focus on skin care. Over 2,600 stores have launched and are successfully running a global market of 34 countries. In the early 2000s, Sephora’s mission moved towards dominating the online market with the introduction of www.sephora.com.

Sephora’s introduction into the Chinese market had a few obstacles at first, as the leading online platform Tmall had most of the nation’s beauty and skin care needs covered. Understanding the market well, the China team partnered with Tmall in a collaboration to distribute Sephora goods on a variety of platforms that were more user friendly to their new target audience. Since then, their mobile app was also introduced, although its traffic is currently dominated by users in the US.

Featuring a wide variety of luxury brands, Sephora builds their reputation on the distribution of well-known brand names, as well as the offering of their “Sephora” line that meets the standards of said brands.

Store Layout

I decided to conduct a field observation study on the Huangpu Sephora store to investigate how the brand operates their customer experience. Having some familiarity with the brand while living in the US sparked my curiosity to detect any differences on presentation to a comparatively different audience of the Chinese Republic.

Store Layout

I combed the layout of the store three times with different approaches. First, I wanted to get a feel of the store and the type of experience they have crafted for me. I diligently followed the labeled stands witch took me from Sephora Collection displayed at the very front, to Exclusive skincare, through Fragrances, to Men SkinCare, to Makeup. I then began with Makeup (the other option to enter the store) and took the same route backwards. The last walk was intuitive and I bounced from displays and products that drew me in the most. I had noticed the attention of the customer service staff and noted their open approach in consulting me. It took one glance and a gentle smile to one of the girls and she was instantly there to assist any of my Sephora desires. I asked her about the makeup station with six large mirrors centred in the middle of the store, only to hear they currently do not have any makeup certified artist on shift to help me craft a full face look. She did mention that the station is for me to freely use at my convenience, and if I would like to collect any specific testers she could help me gather them. I continued exploring: the bright coloured aesthetic seemed themed and well laid out, thus I did not feel overwhelmed even when the store was quite full with other customers. At this point I had spend some time exploring the products and noticed a language barrier; for the products imported from non-English speaking countries the additional labels only included a Chinese translation. I was very curious about a new brand I discovered recently, Dr. Jart+, and was wondering if anyone could provide more information on the products besides the very visually pleasing packaging, as the English labels were covered in a Chinese translation. Right in that moment, another staff member approached me and asked if I needed any help. She was not able to give me an answer and called over a colleague, a couple of minutes went by of them discussing something next to me, when a third staff member approached our bundle. At this point, I felt very grateful in their clear attempt to help me but I began regretting even asking, or hoping they would just let me know they cannot answer. If it wasn’t for the observations that I was making, I would have probably left the interaction, and potentially the store by now — but I was curious to see how this develops. They were still discussing in Chinese the face mask I had showed them, and for the sake of an experiment I googled the product myself. Of course not everyone will have an opportunity to use a VPN when traveling, but I was also taking into consideration that this store wasn’t necessarily launched for a foreigner. I thanked them for their time, and continued exploring.

Product Display

I had noticed their promotion of joining the Beauty Insider Community through the scan of a QR code that was provided in a few different locations around the store and had an idea — what if every product had a QR code that a user can scan and get a quick rundown of the product without all of the poetic descriptions. [ EG. > Dr. Jart+ Moist Lover face mask : moisturises, prevents acne. ] With the 8+ staff members I saw buzzing around the store, I do understand this feature does not technically serve any additional benefits, nothing visiting their online store wouldn’t provide, but with the encounters I had today not being a native speaker and the staff clearly at distress not being able to answer my question — I let the thought simmer.

Another interesting observation was breaking my previously formed perception, I had always associated Sephora largely with makeup, and although the Makeup section of the store was glamorous, it only took up around 1/4 of the store space. The makeup itself was very neutral, and even with the 50 different ranges of pink, I was only able to locate a couple of blue lipsticks and a purple one. At this point I took the backseat and observed the other customers. People in the store looked relaxed and seemed to be enjoying themselves. The staff was very effective when working in their mother tongue and even brightened my mood just from being around these interactions. On a couple fo different times, I even spotted the staff swiftly jogging from the backroom to the font of the store in order to help their clients quickly.

Product Display

The story I read online about Sephora as a brand did not quite come alive during my visit, as I was not able to play around with expressive makeup colours or have an artist guide me though my shopping experience. On the other hand, I was able to gather some great skin care by utilising the Sephora website as a reference, which worked very well. The strong suit of this brand is understanding their target audience, and being aware of the location each store was launched in. The experience overall felt very inviting and welcoming, and although I don’t personally enjoy staff members following me asking if I need help at every corner, I did not notice a single customer turn down the aid — which to me showcases a successful customer service approach. I appreciated the wide range of brand representation, and the price range varying from fairly cheap to very expensive. Sephora has payed attention to the type of customer they are trying to reach and managed to engulf a great range of products in their physical stores.

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