Inside Sephora's Formula for Creating Experiential Retail

By Joe Keenan

Calvin McDonald, president and CEO, Sephora Americas, opened his keynote presentation yesterday at Shoptalk in Las Vegas with a simple question for the audience: Can a retailer truly be experiential? During the next 20 minutes, McDonald proceeded to answer that question in the affirmative, unsurprisingly naming Sephora as a brand that has become experiential for its beauty enthusiast customers.

To become experiential, brands must first define what that means. For Sephora, being experiential is predicated on three core beliefs: Be memorable, be sharable and be repeatable. The cosmetics and beauty products retailer is working to make shopping with it experiential for its customers (which it calls “clients”) and 20 million Beauty Insider loyalty program members, who shop with it on a daily and weekly basis. Sephora sells thousands of products from more than 100 brands across its stores and digital properties.

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Joe Keenan Author's page Joe Keenan is the executive editor of Total Retail. Joe has more than 10 years experience covering the retail industry, and enjoys profiling innovative companies and people in the space.