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1) Project Overview
What is the Scope?
The following project has been researched and completed over one of the most well-known
makeup companies in the world, also known as Sephora. In this detailed electronic commerce
assignment, I evaluate the type of e-commerce site that it is, I include an overview of the
company, visuals, and the main competitor along with Sephora’s competitive advantage. I also
assess the usability of the site, as well as provide an online shopping experience at Sephora, and
conclude with my experience and list any other further comments.
I chose to do my electronic commerce project on Sephora because I have a passion for this type
of company, which is makeup of course. It has always been one of my dreams to work for
Sephora at corporate level and to be part of a team that gets to see a company grow and expand.
This company is relevant to the material learned in class because I am evaluating how it works as
an e-commerce site and how they can market better on the web, all in which was learned in class.
In this project, I will be reviewing the company’s website and analyzing different ways it can
improve to gather more profit and sales. Based on my e-commerce knowledge, I will try to
strategize a plan of how Sephora can outsource their competitor by adding features on their site
and using different marketing methods on the web.
2) The Company Background
Brief history of the company
Sephora is a visionary beauty-retail concept that is owned by LVMH (Louis Vioutton and Moët
Hennessy) which is the world’s leading luxury goods group. Their company headquarters are
located in San Francisco and they have around 300 stores in France, and 1,900 in 29 countries
world-wide, with an expanding base of over 360 stores across North America. This company
employs over 25,000 employees, 4,000 of them which are in France alone. With over 17,000
listed products, “Sephora's unique, open-sell environment features an ever-increasing amount of
classic and emerging brands across a broad range of product categories including skincare, color,
fragrance, body, smilecare, and haircare, in addition to Sephora's own private label.” (SEPHORA
2016)
Electronic commerce category
Sephora falls under the B2C category for electronic commerce because this company sells
products to individual customers on their website. (Schneider 9) The way the web site is
developed, it can be easily concluded that it is made to attract customers and to serve their needs.
Their mobile app, Sephora-to-go, falls into the same category as well. There have been helpful
features designated to their app for their customers that make this a B2C company. For example:
In store, there are representatives that help answer any questions a customer may have. Let’s say
I was buying a new foundation. Sephora Sales Associates use a device that color match your skin
to make sure they give you the right product and shade. Online it’s not the simple, but Sephora
has done everything they can to meet their customer’s needs by giving pictures of the shades
along with a description of each to help the customer when making their decision.
3) The Company Business Model
Customer value proposition
“To build the most knowledgeable and professional team of product consultants in the beauty
industry, Sephora developed "Science of Sephora." This program ensures that our team is skilled
to identify skin types, have knowledge of skin physiology, the history of makeup, application
techniques, the science of creating fragrances, and most importantly, how to interact with
Sephora's diverse clientele.” (Sephora 2016)
Sephora’s value proposition is more for their associates than for their customer’s. If they targeted
their value proposition to their customer’s needs more, they could improve their customer
services, customer satisfaction, customer sales, and so forth.
Revenue model
(Attached Below)
Sephora is very discrete with their PR information, that the only revenue model I could find is
Louis Vuitton’s (LVMH). Since Louis Vuitton owns Sephora, this company falls under their
Perfume and Cosmetics category. Looking at the chart above, there was a 15% increase from
2014 to 2015 of sales in this category. Overall, every category under LVMH has had a profit
increase, thus it can be said this company is doing very well.
Marketspace
The marketspace in Sephora lists over 17,000 products. Since Sephora is mostly a beauty
company, all their products fall into the same category. They have products listed under Makeup,
Skin Care, Fragrance, Bath & body, Nail, Hair, Tools & Brushes, Men, Gifts, Sale & Brands. All
the categories can be narrowed down into subcategories. For example: Under Makeup, we would
have more categories like Face, Cheek, Eye, Lips, etc. and under that, there would be another
subcategory listing more in depth products.
Competitors
Sephora’s main competitor is Ulta, which is another well-known makeup company with 715
retail stores across 47 states. With over 20,000 prestige and mass beauty products, this company
Headquartered near Chicago, sells overall the same products as Sephora, but also gives
customer’s additional beauty services like The Salon (hair services) and The Beauty Bar (for
eyebrows). Both companies offer their customer’s very similar services and products, the only
difference is that their brands vary by company, and they offer different rewards. Sephora
