Sephora’s Customer Journey — A Basket Case

#Twitter is awash with praise for hashtag#Sephora’s innovative approach to in-store dialogue. Customers are presented with two different shopping baskets: red for those looking for help; black signals that the consumer does not want to talk to an assistant.

This is in-line with a mini-trend evident in brick and mortar retail, with brands providing journeys that do not have human interaction. Examples include #Nike’s ‘House Of Innovation’ and ‘adidas_LDN’, whereby customers can order product for try-on and purchase through the app, without the need to ask a store assistant.

The most famous example is ‘Amazon Go’, which has removed people almost entirely, with cameras tracking items added to basket and the total automatically charged to the consumer’s account (no checkout needed). However, there is a key difference — with Nike and adidas there is still interaction. Firstly, the customer must download the app, which is conversational in nature, in that it offers wayfinding, promotes items, and offers chat online.

Sephora and Go are actively removing this. With Amazon it is understandable — the brand does not value contact across the consumer journey. However, Sephora should do! For them, building a connection is more sticky than conversion.