STORES Magazine - April 2009 - (Page 54) NUTS AND BOLTS / MOBILE MARKETING Beauty Call Sephora establishes foundation for mobile customer reviews BY FIONA SOLTES t’s n o t so h a rd t o imagine a woman using a cell phone or other mobile device to get an opinion on something she’s considering buying. Chances are pretty good that she has any number of friends just a call, text or e-mail away, ready to offer input. I Decker says, but the reality is that consumers want authenticity, and negative reviews add credibility. “That was definitely a concern,” Bornstein says, “but we decided that the products have to stand on their own. The process we go through to vet the claims of products, to make sure they’re efficacious and they work, it’s a pretty rigorous one. And at the end of the day, we felt comfortable with the claims we were making and the products we were carrying. We do have plenty of critical comments, but the average star rating is four out of five.” Feedback for manufacturers Bornstein says the reviews — positive and negative — also have proven helpful to the manufacturers, which might not otherwise receive feedback on a daily basis. Visitors to m.sephora.com can sort reviews by category, brand or “top rated.” In the future, however, there are plans for consumers to be able to sort by skin type, eye and hair color. Regardless of the retail vertical, Decker says MobileVoice provides an opportunity to improve customer satisfaction, offset the challenges of in-store merchandising, overcome the average consumer’s reluctance to fully trust advertising claims and get a jump on mobile’s advantages before they become ubiquitous. At Sephora, where enthusiasm already runs high for the company’s roughly 15,000 SKUs, the sheer number of reviews — “300 times bigger in terms of volume than anticipated,” according to Bornstein — is a fitting tribute to the store’s customer base. “Beauty is a category that women love and feel passionately about,” she says. “It’s a source of fun, a way to change your look without investing a huge amount of money, something that inspires excitement. And Sephora is a candy shop for women who love beauty.” StORES Fiona Soltes, who splits her time between “retail therapy” and freelance writing, lives near Nashville, Tenn. WWW.STORES.ORG But what if she could use that device to instantly gather literally hundreds of opinions at any time of day or night — including while she’s in the store, comparing the products right before her? For shoppers of beauty marketplace Sephora, it’s a reality. Long known for its try-before-you-buy philosophy, the make-up/skincare/fragrance giant has expanded the range of personalized service by offering customer product reviews on mobile devices through m.sephora.com. “This doesn’t replace the ability to touch and feel,” says Julie Bornstein, senior vice president of Sephora Direct, which launched Bazaarvoice’s MobileVoice application in January. “But it is good to hear other people’s opinions. Salespeople are the most helpful source of information, and their level of expertise and education will never be met by the average consumer. But this is another data point for making a decision.” Bazaarvoice, which offers social commerce applications for more than 300 ecommerce leaders like Dell and Overstock.com, had been looking for an opportunity to expand into mobile territory. Sephora, which added reviews to its website (also via Bazaarvoice) last August, offered the perfect opportunity 54 STORES / APRIL 2009 of shoppers who read reviews said that their purchasing decisions have been directly influenced by those reviews. 82% 62% of consumers read consumer-written product reviews on the Internet. Source: Deloitte & Touche, September 2007 for a “flagship store,” says Sam Decker, Bazaarvoice’s chief marketing officer. “They were excited about improving their in-store experience,” he says. “And they were already excited about the amount of reviews they had received. It energized them internally, and they began thinking, ‘Why not bridge that web experience over to the store?’” Research has shown that eight in 10 consumers are using reviews to purchase products, Decker says, and 60 percent of buyers now research products online before they hit the store. “So why not just make it more convenient?” For many retailers, the greatest argument against offering reviews — mobile or otherwise — is the realization that some of them won’t be positive. It’s “one of the first hurdles people bring up,” http://m.sephora.com http://m.sephora.com http://www.overstock.com http://www.overstock.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG
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