As the head of Sephora Digital, Julie Bornstein oversees the international cosmetics company’s online and technological operations and strategies. For the last several years, she has worked to integrate technology in the brand’s physical stores and make Sephora a force in online sales. She talked to Wired Business about the importance of offline retail in an online world and how technology can enhance the real-world retail experience.
Wired: Early this year, Sephora launched a new website and installed iPads in 21 of its 750 stores so customers could look up products and shop online while in a brick-and-mortar location. Wednesday, Sephora launched another piece of gadgetry, the ColorIQ system. It helps you find the right makeup color for your skintone. Is that so hard to do?
Julie Bornstein: For many people it is. (Color curating company) Pantone has basically mapped human skin tone into 110 shades of color, ranging from lighter to dark, redder to yellower. We then took our 1,100 shades of foundation (makeup) across many brands and matched every single color of makeup to the Pantone skin colors. Together we created a device that takes 27 pictures of the skin in less than two seconds, and takes out all of the other filters that could change how a color looks. Those pictures create a composite image of your skin that can be matched to the Pantone skin colors to find the right shade of face makeup for each customer.
Wired: Sephora is one of the few retail brands that really focuses on bringing technology into its stores, first with in-store iPads and now with ColorIQ. Why push the tech so hard?
When technology is used not just as a gimmick, but to actually help solve a problem, like cutting a line or getting access to reviews, it creates an elevated experience for the consumer.
Bornstein: Our goal is for the customer to buy a product and love it, and digital technology can help that. We see using technology as a form of customer service, because it helps customers navigate to the best products for them.
Wired: Retail is becoming divided between online and brick-and-mortar stores. Sephora’s technology efforts are an attempt to bridge the gap. Why is that so important?
Bornstein:There are inherent advantages for each channel and the more we can bring those two things together, the better we can make the overall experience. Most of our consumers are cross-channel shoppers, and we want to make their experience between online and offline as seamless as possible. We know that shoppers want the same information they can find while shopping online in the store as well. In that sense, mobile has been the greatest tool to offer that information in stores.
Wired: Why mobile in particular?
Bornstein: It’s adding information and comfort to the buying experience. The Sephora iOS app can scan product barcodes to bring up product reviews. We’re using mobile devices in stores for point-of-sale, so you don’t have to wait in line to buy something. Our Beauty Experts can also pull up relevant information on products and makeup techniques, giving us the ability to cater the shopping experience to you. Mobile devices simply give more power to the consumer.
Wired: Is brick-and-mortar retail doomed?
Bornstein: In certain industries brick-and-mortar retail will never go away. Shopping is a pastime for a lot of women and some men. But what’s interesting is that there are no record stores anymore. I definitely think in certain industries, there is truly no purpose in having a retail store anymore. I personally hope book stores never go away, but it’s already happening.
Wired: Can the beauty industry sustain brick and mortar stores?
Bornstein: In the cosmetics business, the number one reason people buy a product is because they are sampling it. The physical presence of our store is a role that will never go away. Shopping for clothing and makeup is experiential. But the mix of industries that will stay in physical retail, and those that will go exclusively online will shift in the coming years. Clothing and makeup will probably never disappear, but others will.
I definitely think in certain industries, there is truly no purpose in having a retail store anymore.
Wired: Does bringing technology like iPads and the ColorIQ system into stores help them stay relevant?
Bornstein: Bringing technology into the store makes the retailer seem smarter because technology creates efficiency. As a consumer you truly appreciate that. When technology is used not just as a gimmick, but to actually help solve a problem, like cutting a line or getting access to reviews, it creates an elevated experience for the consumer. For us, it does it keep our store relevant, but also gives consumers what they want. They know the information they want is online, but they like having that catalog of information available in stores as well.
Wired: What has disrupted retail the most in the last several years?
Bornstein: Ecommerce. Fifteen years ago ecommerce didn’t exist, and now depending on the industry it has five to 20 percent market share. Consumers come into stores smarter because they’ve done their research before they’ve come.
Wired: What’s the next for technology and retail?
Bornstein: In think the next biggest thing is mobile payments. In the future we won’t be pulling out our wallets for stores to take our credit cards. That to me is the next frontier for how digital and physical retail are going to evolve.
Wired: How will mobile payments look?
Bornstein: We’ll either be using our mobile phones or we’ll be using a PIN on a keypad to pay for everything. There will probably end up being a few options, just as today there are three major credit card companies that have cornered the market. But until then, the technology needs to be perfected, the consumer needs to adopt it, and the retailer needs to adopt it.
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