Sephora, a beauty products retailer has begun opening Flash
boutiques in France that aim to make cosmetics and perfume shopping easier for shoppers.
In their flash boutiques, they are employing Near Field Communication (NFC)
RFID technology to give customers a more interactive and individualized
shopping experience.
Sephora’s Flash Stores have placed NFC tags on the bottom of some of their products, primarily their perfumes, that interact with touchscreen tablets. When the tags are
placed on a NFC reader, they prompt the tablets to provide the shopper with
more information about the product. This allows buyers to sample goods on their
own and learn about each product by using Sephora’s new individualized and
interactive technology.
Customers can also use a card with an embedded NFC RFID tag to
create a shopping cart. This gives you the ability to use your NFC RFID card to
scan products that may not be available at the store, but you can purchase them
when you get to the check out counter, and they will be shipped to your house.
The RFID technology links directly to Sephora’s stock
keeping unit, showing whether they have certain items in stores, or available
in their warehouse. This helps with customer service, making it easier to
locate products and help customers receive them as quickly as possible.
The technology at Sephora’s flash boutique has been well
received by shoppers, however it is not perfect. Sephora offers 14,000
different products from 150 different brands that you can buy digitally,
however, unlike the perfumes, they are not able to provide a sample of each
product. With the perfume, you cannot always buy it at the store but you can
sample them. Cosmetics are something that people want to sample and see in
person, so it not logical to use NFC scanner to purchase cosmetics.
The article also did not touch upon whether there is a NFC
tracker in the product that is purchased to be sent to a customer’s home. Is
Sephora using the technology to its full ability? Or are they just tagging the
products in inventory and in stores but not for shipment tracking purposes.
Finally, how much does it cost for Sephora to use NFC RFID
trackers and readers? Are the NFC cards reusable for a new customer, or are
they wasted after a single use? The article did mention that their feedback
from customers has been positive, but they did not release anything about how
their new technology has affected sales. It is unclear if the amount of money
that Sephora spent to implement this technology has increased their sales.
Sources:
http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?13881/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvaFpXgwYoM
Overall, I am very impressed with Sephora’s new technology and believe other potential customers will be too. In general, Sephora will get major attention and appreciation for implementing this type of technology way before any other cosmetic company. And I believe customers will see this new technology and realize the advancement Sephora is making and therefore understand Sephora is continuing to improve and grow.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that overall customers are going to be more satisfied with Sephora due to the more interactive and individualized shopping experience these Flash boutiques provide them. Personally, efficiency and customer service is a huge factor for me when deciding if I enjoy shopping somewhere. So if this technology is improving customer service and making it easier and quicker for customers to receive products, I think it will definitely end up increasing sales. This will make customers more enthusiastic about going to Sephora to shop because they will receive an efficient and pleasant experience. Therefore, if the consumers have a better experience, they are more likely to return to Sephora and become frequent Sephora customers. So in the long run this technology could definitely increase profits for Sephora. However, I do not think this technology will increase profits immediately because these boutiques may make shopping at Sephora more advanced, but the products are still the exact same so I do not think this technology is going to bring in a large quantity of new customers. However, I believe in the long run this technology will create more frequent and loyal customers.
A big question I had when reading this blog was, does Sephora plan to open these boutiques in other countries? In the blog it says these boutiques are only in France. However, I feel that Sephora would need to open them in many more locations to see significant results in profits and get a better understanding of how this technology is increasing sales. I understand why Sephora would be hesitant to open it in other countries because it is currently unclear if the technology has increased sales yet and Sephora does not want to waste their money. But I do think if Sephora is going to use this type of technology in one country, it should be used in other countries too.