Sephora is a major cosmetics retailer present in over 30 countries with over 1,700 stores. On its Facebook page, Sephora communicates mainly about new products and promotions to its over 500,000 fans. While posts by Sephora generate many reactions from users, showing the success of using Facebook, Sephora does not always respond to customer complaints or information requests. To improve engagement, Sephora could focus more on customer service and interactive communication with fans about the brand's values in addition to new products.

1. F&T MARKETING –
E-RÉFÉRENCEMENT
M. Tiziano TASSI
Alexandra BETTON – Emmanuelle BONNET – Suzi FONSECA GOMES –
Tatiana SAVINOVA – Doriane SUIRE

2. INTRODUCTION TO THE BRAND
Short history
• Created in 1969 by Dominique Mandonnaud
• Belong to LVMH since 1997
• In 1999 Sephora created its first website with online sales
: www.sephora.com in the USA
• Currently there is over 1 700 stores through 30 countries
• In 2013 there was 295 stores in France with a turnover of
1 226 324 000 € and a profit of 92 477 000 €

3. INTRODUCTION TO THE BRAND
Distribution channels
•
•
•
•
•
E-commerce is now essential and complementary to conventional
merchant circuits.
An average of more than 5 million people have viewed each month at
least one site of Top 5 e-commerce sites : cosmetic Club creators of
beauty, Yves Rocher, Sephora, Marionnaud and Nocibé
Direct sales and travel retails
Site Sephora.com since 1999 in USA and since 2005 in France
Sephora stores in France, USA, China, United Arab emirates, Europe,
Japan
Competitors
•
•
•
•
The most important world distributors are Marionnaud, Nocibé,
Sephora et Douglas – 76% of national market
Perfume and cosmetics stores in France: Les Galeries Lafayette, Le
Printemps and le Bon Marché – 8% of national market
Independent perfumers – 4% of nation market
The franchises and groupments of small stores - 12% of the national
market

4. INTRODUCTION TO THE BRAND
Markets
• It is estimated at over 425 billion selling price
distributor. The current main centers of consumption in
2011 are :
- Europe, the world's largest market with € 72 billion
- United States: € 37.8 billion
- Japan: € 29.3 billion
*Source: Euromonitor International 2009 and 2011

5. INTRODUCTION TO THE
BRAND’S FACEBOOK PAGE
 SEPHORA France
 517 962 fans
 8662 persons are talking about it
 Pictures / Articles / Events
Link on Instagram
 Link on the website to Facebook
« Parce qu’il se passe toujours quelque chose chez Sephora, devenez fan
de Sephora France puis découvrez, « likez » et partagez la beauté telle
que nous la travaillons ! »
« Because there is always something in Sephora, be a fan of Sephora
France then discover, like and share beauty as we are working it ! »

6. ANALYSIS
Category of brand's posts
Comments :
2%
Branding
28%
8%
Communication
(Product)
62%
Communication
(Promotion)
Sephora Facebook page
mainly used to
communicate about its
products
Infotainment
Key points :
- Information for customers about new products (62%) and campaigns (23%)
- Attractive pictures to make people try products and give opinions
- Opinions are available for all clients of Sephora

7. ANALYSIS
Category brand's comments
Comments :
33%
50%
Communication
(Product)
Communication
(Promotion)
17%
Customer Care
Key points :
- Sephora answers a few to customers’ requests
- 50% answers for customer care
The brand doesn’t
really answer to
customers (6/100
comments)

8. ANALYSIS
Category fans' posts
Claim/complaint
10%
6%
Conversation between
users
16%
14%
Fanship/support/endorse
ment
Gratitude
34%
14%
6%
Information request
Comments :
Sephora Facebook page
used mainly to ask
information about
products or about
organization
Reaction to infotainment
Scorn/offense
Key points :
- Almost equal (3-8% for each category)
- Friendly relationship with the brand + quick answers
- Varied posts (discussion with the brand & about the firm)
- Communication on users’ businesses, products, blogs…

9. ANALYSIS
Category of fans' comments
4%
Comments :
5%
24%
34%
Claim/complaint
Conversation between users
Mainly positive
Fanship/support/endorsement
Gratitude
22%
9%
Information request
Reaction to infotainment
Scorn/offense
2%
Key points :
- Creation of a community (conversations between users about
products and brand)
- Despite complaints, Facebook still is a tool to discuss and share
about cosmetics

10. ANALYSIS
Index of active conversation for brand
Brand's status with
comments
Comments :
Active plateform for
conversations
between users and
the brand
100%
Key points :
- Posts, interest or questions about the product provided by Sephora
have comments
- Users totally involved about Sephora news

11. ANALYSIS
Index of active conversation for fans
52%
48%
Fans' status with
comments
Fans' status without
comments
Key points :
- Brand’s posts more interesting for users
- Conversations started by fans more offensive
- Sephora have mostly fans
Comments :
Conversations started
by fans are less popular
than brand’s posts.

12. ANALYSIS
Comments :
More comments, likes
and shares for the
brand.
Key points :
- Support shown to the brand via a lot of « likes » (31790)
- Comments on brand’s posts to bring attention
- Users want to federate people around the brand and promote products
by sharing
- Attention brought to fans’ posts less important (0 sharing)

13. ANALYSIS
Response nature to brand's posts
Comments :
Claim/complaint
3% 2%
Conversation between users
21%
35%
Fanship/support/endorseme
nt
Main type of response for
the brand’s posts is reaction
to infotainment
Gratitude
26%
10%
Information request
3%
Reaction to infotainment
Scorn/offense
Key points :
- A few claim/complaint responses (2%)
- Some scorn/offense responses, for example « Sephora product was shit »
- The rest is neutral or positive responses

14. ANALYSIS
Customer care index
Comments :
12%
Customer care
response
No customer care
response
No response back to
customers often even if
there are complaints or
requests.
88%
Key points :
- Percentage of response quite low (12%) for complaints or
information requests
- Answered twice for information request and once to a complaint
- No deal with the complaints/claim posts
- For information requests, Sephora doesn’t really take time to
answer

15. CONCLUSIONS
Sephora is really present on Facebook. The brand
communicates mainly about its products.
Every post generates a lot of reactions from users.
That shows the success of this important media
and the users’ interest.
We can see that users want an interactive contact
with the brand.

16. SUGGESTIONS
- Sephora should answer to its customers all the time
- The brand should be more interactive with its fans and not
just communicate on its products
- It should communicate more on the value of the brand

17. SEPHORA
Thank you for your listening