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visit. Our phones are with us constantly, so it’s Curbing showrooming natural that they are the frst place we turn to when we want to research, get inspired, Selfridges: beauty in the limelight “ program of events Thanks to its lively Widespread use of and store animation, smartphones is making Selfridges claims it has not fallen prey to the showrooming more popular; showrooming trend. they drive transactions from Its latest initiative, brick-and-mortar to online. The Beauty Project, produced a series There is not much retailers can of events, aimed at do to prevent this; they can giving consumers only adapt and use this trend the opportunity to experience and think to their advantage about beauty in a different way, says Selfridges’ director of beauty Demuro. Launched in May, The Beauty Project campaign includes the Fragrance Lab, an immersive olfactory Elena Bohenick” experience for fnding one’s fragrance ‘essence’; The Salon, which hosted talks on the future of beauty in collaboration with Dove; and exclusive products and short flms. The L2 Think Tank research analyst project is said to be the frst time that beauty has been the main focus of a storewide concept and the biggest storewide initiative of the year. compare products and make a shopping list,” says Sephora director of digital business development Johnna Marcus. Target focuses on in-store advantages Harnessing special events & exclusives In an effort to fend off showrooming, Target has been Some department stores have not experienced amping up its services and a multi-channel strategy, a loss of sales due to showrooming, simply including the launch of a Target app, in-store wif and store because consumers come to the store for events pick-up services. The operator also started introducing or services that cannot be found online. “Our beauty ‘concierges’ to assist consumers, a move that set customers come in for the knowledge of our the store apart from rival mass retailers. In addition, to sales staff and the theater that is at the heart of drive interest in the store product assortment and shopping our business. A customer might come into the experience, it launched exclusive products that could not be beauty hall and see Nicki Minaj in for MAC one found online and a discount service for shoppers in its stores. week, or body painting another,” says Demuro. This echoes French department store Printemps, which fnds consumers come to the store for its prestige offer and services. Sephora on the Go “The consumer comes to us for personalized Since 2010, when Sephora launched its mobile web advice, to learn how to apply a product, to have applications, the retailer has enforced a strong mobile contact with an expert, and to learn about new strategy that helps the consumer shop in store. “The Sephora treatments, say with a cabin treatment. […] to Go app and our mobile web help serve the consumer We are offering an environment and a service by fnding past purchases in her Beauty Bag or adding her which is not looked for automatically on mobile Beauty Insider card to the app, which gives her access to her or the internet,” says Printemps head of beauty card digitally, including current rewards and points balances, collections Delphine Hervé-Turro. and lets her preplan her trip to include on-line booking for The physical store still has considerable our in-store services at the Beauty Studio,” explains Sephora appeal, but this appeal needs to be better director of digital business development Johnna Marcus. communicated, so consumers can see what they are getting there that they won’t get online. n September-October 2014 - N°19 - BW Confidential 45