Cosmetics company Sephora is rolling out a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon solution to provide content related to a shopper’s proximity when that customer uses Sephora’s app on an Apple iPhone. The beacon system is slated to be rolled out to all of the company’s stores following a pilot of the solution that began in the fall at two San Francisco-area sites. The retailer has not indicated the timeline for the installation rollout.
The beacons and content-management software are being provided by Gimbal.
Sephora operates approximately 1,900 stores throughout 29 countries, including about 360 across North America. The company sells perfumes and cosmetics at each of these locations. Its customers can buy its products online or at physical stores, and like many retailers, Sephora has been seeking ways in which to encourage shoppers to visit the brick-and-mortar locations, where they can sample products and make purchases based on what they actually see, feel and smell.
To achieve this goal, the company recently launched what it calls the Sephora Innovation Lab, in a converted San Francisco warehouse, where its latest technologies dedicated to integrating digital and physical shopping will be demonstrated. The laboratory includes a full-size model of a Sephora store, and the beacon system is among the technologies being showcased there.
As part of the effort to encourage shoppers to visit its stores, the retailer’s Sephora to Go mobile app (available at the iTunes and Google Play websites) is designed to notify app users of any new promotions and birthday month benefits, and to remind them of in-store services such as makeovers. The iOS version of the app also enables users to receive special offers and information triggered by beacons installed within its stores.
Last year, the company decided to conduct a trial of the beacon system in order to determine whether location-based content would interest customers as they shopped for products at its brick-and-mortar stores. After preliminary testing was carried out at the two locations, the retailer launched the trial, which is still underway, according to Bridget Dolan, Sephora Innovation Lab’s VP. At each store (one located on Union Street in San Francisco, the other across the bay in Emeryville), Sephora installed five beacons, each in a different section of the store.
A user must first download the Sephora to Go app on her phone or tablet. She can then opt to set her app to “store mode,” which instructs the phone to keep its Bluetooth function turned on, and to receive transmissions from beacons at Sephora’s stores.
At the two participating sites, a shopper who sets the app to store mode will receive content specific to the store in which she is shopping. When she comes within range of a beacon, she receives a welcome message and is invited to select from a menu that lists information related to the department in which she is located. The app also selects appropriate content to display for that individual, such as the products she has in her online shopping basket, and indicates which of these are available at the store or in the department.
A shopper can also use the app to scan a product’s bar code in order to view ratings and reviews, as well as look up her past purchases or her wish list that she may have set up online. Additionally, Dolan says, the customer can have the app display a bar-code-scannable loyalty card, which she can then present at the point of sale.
Sephora, Dolan says, “looks forward to expanding to more stores soon.”