With more than 250 brands and 14,000 products, Sephora can boast one of the largest and most diverse selection of beauty products. Sephora has changed the way the females shop for cosmetics and beauty products, giving traditional department store counters their first real competition in over 50 years. Sephora’s improvement can be linked with its rare approach to merchandise. The stores are designed like a supermarket but are furnished in the manner resembling a nightclub, while the chain has provided a low-pressure, consumer-empowering ambiance compared with traditional department store counters. At Sephora, each customer can easily retrieve products unassisted, directly from the shelves without going through the fussy, assisted interactions that characterize typical beauty counters. The store’s flow layout allows consumers to choose various products from different brands, texture and color, and test them out on one’s hand and face. Makeup tutorials with professional advice are offered for customers requiring assistance. Unlike the traditional selling concepts, the store does not push one to buy its products. The customer can try something out in order to find out how useful or effective it is. To improve the impact of their brand and make it easier for their clients to save and share their favorite beauty products, the Sephora team added the ‘Pin It’ button to tens of thousands of Internet product pages during a major website redesign. As a result, a growing number of potential clients discovered Sephora products on the Internet site Pinterest and visited Sephora.com. Within a few months Pinterest became a top 10 referring site for Sephora.com and a place to be inspired by beauty.
