Sephora is a major cosmetics retailer focusing on digital marketing to build a strong brand image and boost online sales, targeting primarily women under 34 years old and men aged 20-40. It faces competition from both high-end department stores and independent beauty suppliers, emphasizing a distinct digital presence through engagements with influencers and social media platforms. Sephora's website optimization and user-friendly checkout process contribute to its online success, although enhancing content across various social media could improve engagement and attract a broader audience.

1. Sephora Audit
Sephora logo vector free download. (2015, October 21). Retrieved April 03, 2018,
from https://www.seeklogo.net/fashion-beauty-logos/sephora-15180.html

2. Discovering the Business Objectives of Sephora
Sephora is a chain of high-quality cosmetics stores, and a significant
digital presence allows this company to communicate a prestige image,
actively advertise new products, and quickly resolve customer complaints.
The cosmetics industry is all about appearance, and the purpose of
Sephora’s digital marketing presence is to build a brand reputation of
beauty, elegance, and self-expression.
Major competitors such as Shoppers Drug Mart and the Hudson’s Bay
Company also sell a wide-variety of beauty products, but Sephora aims to
differentiate itself in the digital realm through major celebrity
endorsements such as Rihanna, eye-catching posts, and trendier
products.
Sephora also carries a distinct focus on its cosmetics products across all
platforms, while competitors often lack a clear focus in this area.
Sephora’s digital presence allows the company to boost online sales, and
also advertise the brand’s image to promote future in-store visits.
Photo Source: Makeup. (n.d.). Retrieved April 03, 2018, from
https://www.sephora.com/shop/makeup-cosmetics

3. Target Market
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Sephora’s Primary Target Market is:
- Women
- Under 34 years of age
- No kids
- More than high school education
- Income under $20,000 or over $125,000 (US Dollars)
- Interested in cosmetic products, use multiple daily à seek out
- Care about their appearance, follow trends
Sephora’s Secondary Target Market is:
- Men between 20 and 40 years of age
- Women between 35 and 50 years of age
- Income over $40,000 (US Dollars)
- Looking for quality and a variety of cosmetic products
- Interested in cosmetics, use on at least a weekly basis
Information from: Sephora Shopper Insights and Demographics. (n.d.).
Retrieved April 03, 2018, from https://infoscout.co/retailer/sephora

4. Target Market – Competition
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Sephora’s Primary Competition is:
Sephora’s Secondary Target Market is:
Main Competitors: Hudson’s Bay, other ‘High-End’ Department Stores, Shoppers Drug Mart
- One stop shop for all high-end beauty needs (makeup, hair, perfume, skin)
- Attracts customers looking for quality/higher end products in one place
- These competitors all sell other products from clothes to groceries à are still the top of mind
location for high end beauty needs
- All offer online purchase options (although Shoppers Drug Mart has less online options), and
have social media accounts with beauty focused posts to show a variety of brands
- Attracts a more mature consumer, interested in a majority of products
Secondary Competitors: MAC Cosmetics, NYX, Independent Beauty Suppliers
- Destination for certain products (high-end), only sell makeup NOT skin or hair products
- Attracts a younger consumer, or consumers focused on the ‘art’ of makeup
- Offers products online through their website, and advertises through social media
accounts, focusing on the unique new products offered

5. An In-Depth Analysis of Sephora’s Website
Sephora’s website has a total engagement rate of
24.68 million, with a bounce rate of 33.31%.
Out of this total traffic 84.12% is organic traffic
whereas the remaining 15.88% is paid traffic.
In terms of page speed, Sephora.ca is ranked in the
fastest third of all pages, and typically outperforms
its competitors in both speed and optimization .
Mobile
Desktop
Sephora Hudson’s Bay Shoppers
Information received from ://www.similarweb.com/website/sephora.com#social, https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

6. Analyzing traffic by countries, maximum traffic is
experienced in the United States (65.84%) followed by
Canada (14.27%).
Among traffic sources, traffic that is generated directly
to the website is highest (49.87%) followed by traffic
from search entries (33.30%). The other traffic sources
are referrals, social media, displays and mail in this
order.
While generating the majority of their website users
directly is a positive sign, Sephora may look to improve
its social traffic by creating even more interactive posts,
with calls to action to visit their site.
Where Are Sephora’s Website Users Located?
Information received from:https://www.similarweb.com/website/sephora.com#social 6

7. A Quick Analysis Of Sephora’s Checkout Process
Shopping is made easier on Sephora.ca with the help of
Sephora’s shopping basket.
The Checkout on Sephora.ca is a four step customer-
friendly process. Firstly the website will ask you to login to
your account after which you have to enter your delivery
details. Once this is done, you can confirm the items in
your shopping basket and choose your desired payment
method – credit/debit/PayPal.
This checkout feature does not appear to be a major
differentiator in this industry, but the speed and
optimization of Sephora’s website makes this process
convenient for customers.
Website users are able to sign in, register, track their
order, or find a store by clicking the top right portion of
the main landing page. In contrast, Shoppers “find a
store” feature is buried at the bottom of their site, making
it difficult for customers to find this information.
Photo Source: Makeup. (n.d.). Retrieved April 03, 2018, from
https://www.sephora.com/shop/makeup-cosmetics
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8. Sephora’s Social Media - Twitter
2,395,412 FOLLOWERS 101,215 TWEETS Sephora posts an average of 52 tweets
per day.
In the last 30 days, Sephora has tweeted
1,833 times.
The most engaging hashtags used by
Sephora in the last 30 days are
#SephoraSkincare & #Dior.
Sephora’s followers on Twitter are
following an upward trend resulting in
almost about 2.4 million total followers.
Sephora is quick with their responses whenever
mentioned, showing a higher B2C engagement,
almost every tweet includes a link and a
supporting visual.
Shoppers Drug Mart has 75,434 followers, Hudson
Bay has 157,034 followers and Mac Cosmetics has
1.50 million followers.
Information received from: https://twitter.com/Sephora,
https://tweetreach.com/reports/20932159,
https://twittercounter.com/Sephora#public-profile-tweets
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9. Sephora’s Social Media - Instagram
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Sephora’s Instagram page has a variety of bright pictures and videos:
On pictures there are shoppable links to products featured in the post
Over 14 million followers on main verified account – also accounts by country
• Typically reach over 40k likes per post, 4-6 posts per day
• Informal captions, lots of hashtags, emojis and tagging @Sephora or where the post was
regrammed from
Most photo’s are reposts by social influencers, or specific product brands
High interaction with comments and responses
Photo source: Sephora Instagram Account: @Sephora

10. Competitor’s Social Media - Instagram
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Photo source: Hudson Bay Instagram Account: @hudsonbay
Shopper’s Drugmart Instagram Account: @shoppersdrugmartofficial
MAC Cosmetics Instagram Account: @maccosmetics
Primary Competitions Instagram page has a dimmer appearance, with mainly pictures
but some videos, more formal captions:
• Hudson’s Bay: Mix of products in posts (beauty, clothes, Bay collection, etc)
• Only shoppable links on clothing posts
• One account with 150K+ followers, typically over 400 likes per post, mainly
original content generated by Hudson’s Bay, 1 post a day
• Shoppers: Mainly beauty products featured in posts
• On some pictures there are shoppable link’s to products featured in the post
• One account with 95K+ followers, typically over 400 likes per post, mainly
original content generated by Shopper’s, 1 post a day
Secondary Competition
Mac Cosmetics has bright
colourful posts:
• Informal captions, use
hash tags, tag, regram
posts
• 17 + M followers, 35K
plus likes per post, 3-6
posts per day

11. 17.4 million likes and followers
Accessible direct link to Sephora
website
Contact information is visible and
the customer support service is fast
and responsive
1 post in 1-2 days
All post have visuals (images or
videos)
Sephora’s Social Media - Facebook
The primary goal of Facebook for
Sephora is to offer a forum for
discussions of beauty — it's a
place to discover products, find
inspiration and discover beauty
tips.
Photo source: Sephora Official Facebook Page

12. Competitors' Social Media - Facebook
Clear leader by likes, followers and engagements - Large
number of “beauty junkies” prefer Sephora over its main
competitors Shoppers and Hudson Bay
Higher Engagement– number of shares and comments, still
relatively low
Sephora Canada’s Twitter Account does not have great stats in
comparison to their main account especially in comparision
with the competition
#1 #2
#3
Information from http://keyhole.co/account-tracking/preview Information from https://suite.socialbakers.com/
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13. Social Media - YouTube
YouTube is a strong platform for Sephora due to the younger target market they reach (mainly
under 25), Sephora has over 970,000 subscribers, post a video every other day on average
Sephora’s YouTube channel has many “How To” videos, from how to use different products,
how to choose products, how to prep your skins or do your hair and so on
Competition such as Shoppers Drug Mart only has 7,000 subscribers, post once a month and
Hudson’s Bay has under 2,000 with some beauty “How To” videos, no recent posts
Information from https://suite.socialbakers.com/
Share of Subscribers Share of Interactions
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14. Sephora’s Paid Digital Advertising
SVP of Marketing at Sephora, said that “generally their digital
catalog reaches people 20 times better than the print
version” (“Sephora Mastered In-Store Sales By Investing in
Data and Cutting-Edge Technology”, Johnson 2017)
Sephora uses paid advertising for Google ads, Facebook and Instagram sponsored ads
84% of all traffic reaching Sephora’s website is through organic searches the other 16% reaches
their website through clicking on paid advertisements
Photo source: Sephora Official Facebook Page
Information from: https://www.similarweb.com/website/sephora.com#social 14

15. Sephora’s Promoted Posts vs. Competitors Statistics
Instagram Last Month
Ratio of organic posts to
promoted is similar to the
competitors’
Promoted efficiency does not
stand out from the competition
– space to improve
Facebook Last Month
Less active page posting
relative to competitors
Heavier concentration on
promoted posts
Outstanding promoted
efficiency
Information from https://suite.socialbakers.com/

16. Discovering the Gap Analysis for Sephora
Sephora’s Current State
• Sephora’s utilizes Facebook and YouTube to its full
advantage, hosting live Q&As and providing calls to
action through a link to the company’s online stores.
• While their response rate is quick on both Instagram
and Twitter, these posts are simply not as engaging as
their interactive Facebook content.
• Sephora’s website makes ordering a product incredibly
easy, and a four-step customer friendly process
complements an incredibly fast website.
Sephora’s Desired State
• Sephora’s Facebook posts are leading-edge, and the
company would greatly benefit from holding their posts
on other platforms to the same standard.
• Regrams generate buzz on Instagram, but there are
significantly less tutorials, Q&As, and calls to action to
purchase the product.
• Twitter posts often mimic the company’s Instagram
posts, and providing more unique content to each
platform would allow the company to tailor its posts to
each audience.
16Photo Source: Official Twitter
Account

17. Strategic Recommendations for Sephora
information received from https://suite.socialbakers.com/
Photo Source: Makeup. (n.d.). Retrieved April 03, 2018, from
https://www.sephora.com/shop/makeup-cosmetics
Individual Strategy
• Optimization on the desktop site is currently low, and Sephora should look to create additional displays
to showcase popular products on the landing page.
• A larger focus towards Facebook would allow Sephora to attract a more mature audience with
significant disposable income.
• Twitter and Facebook will be important accounts to maintain as some of their target market customers
age and revert back to these accounts, do not want to lose these customers because you only target
younger customers when products can be used at any age.
• Sephora should look at better maintaining or getting rid of their country specific social media accounts
as they are not maintained as well as their primary account.
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