Once a woman seeking a new mascara might ask the sales associate at her local department store’s beauty counter for guidance. Now she’s more likely to google “best mascara” and arrive at an e-commerce site like Sephora, where she’ll find extensive customer reviews, or other online forums like Beautypedia and MakeupAlley. Read more at The Wall Street Journal.
Read More“Urban Decay, NYX, and now IT Cosmetics: L’Oréal recently made a series of strategic acquisitions in the United States with the aim to adapt itself to a changing beauty market where the explosion of social media and e-commerce may reshuffle the positions of all global players.” Read more at Premium Beauty News.
Read More“Sephora, owned by French luxury conglomerate LVMH, first opened in Canada in 2004 and now has 60 stores across the country. Its corporate culture became much more focused on change and innovation after failing to win over consumers when Sephora opened in the U.S. 17 years ago.” Read more at Financial Post.
Read More“L’Oréal’s investment in research and innovation is the highest in the industry, as the company is continuing to invest in digital innovation. Investments in research and innovation, especially digital innovations, should drive revenues for L’Oréal in the long term, as beauty purchases are now increasingly being influenced by digital channels.” Read more at Forbes.
Read More“It’s fitting that Burberry’s first major campaign on Snapchat is for a fragrance, as fragrances present an opportunity to get young consumers to buy into a luxury brand. But this brilliantly executed campaign also denotes a serious long-term investment in Snapchat from Burberry. Brands generally use content to market their products, but here it’s the other way round. Snapchat codes on Mr. Burberry bottles allow people to scan for more Snapchat content.” Read more at Marketing Magazine.
Read More“While the beauty products firm is already working with Marketel McCann Erickson as its creative ad agency and MEC Canada for media placement, Montreal-based Cossette will be taking on web platform optimization, content development and consumer relationship management.” Read more at Marketing Magazine.
Read More“Benefit Cosmetics’ quirky, feel-good tone has won it plenty of fans across social media. And now with a brand new responsive site redesign, its bevy of ‘benebabes’ can expect the same youthful irreverence across its digital properties. The LVMH-owned beauty brand this week unveiled new websites in the U.S., U.K., France and Germany, revamping its existing e-commerce offering. The brand hired Huge to help it boost sales on digital channels, and cater to its young, international, mobile-savvy audience.” Read more at Digiday.
Read More“E-commerce has always been problematic for beauty brands. Unlike other consumer-packaged goods, shoppers choose bricks-and-mortar to purchase products because they’re so personal. This means that consumers have only ever really used digital as a discount channel for repurchases, rather than a more lucrative discovery channel. This could be set to change, but before it can, brands need to break the tangibility barrier.” Read more at Retail Gazette.
Read More“Both niche and legacy brands are finding that vlogger product reviews, customer comments and compelling editorial content across their own platforms are more financially efficient ways of marketing their brands, engaging customers and above all, driving sales.” Read more at Business of Fashion.
Read More“Currently the online market for cosmetics accounts for approximately 8% of sales, but despite color cosmetics companies and retailers investing significant resources in developing apps and online retail channels to encourage digital sales, it doesn’t appear to be working.” Read more at Cosmetics Design.
Read More“The Content Factory enables L’Oréal staffers to create original content for the company’s 35 brands that can be quickly uploaded to digital platforms, whether it be YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. The content can take multiple forms, from video makeup tutorials and product reviews to testimonials and product shots.” Read more at Marketing Magazine.
Read More“‘The number one key to retail success in the future store is to personalize the shopping experience with customer context – bringing the ‘Amazon experience’ to the store,’ said Ken Morris, principal at Boston Retail Partners. ‘Customer context – the interrelated factors of customer insights and environmental conditions that make the shopping experience relevant – is essential to personalizing the experience.’” Read more at Luxury Daily.
Read More“L’Oréal is building its digital team with a host of experts as it looks to gain a strong competitive advantage and win the battle against its cosmetics rivals, according to company chairman and CEO, Jean-Paul Agon.” Read more at Cosmetics Design Europe.
Read More“Currently 70% of Instagram users live outside of the U.S., which means smart, global brands will adapt their Instagram strategy. Benefit Cosmetics, Maybelline, and L’Oréal Paris have excelled at regionalization, but Benefit Cosmetics stands out as the dominant international force in Beauty.” Read more at L2.
Read More“Top leadership at L’Oréal is heavy on seniority in the company and the beauty industry. So it came as a surprise last year when it not only became the first big beauty player to name a chief digital officer, but also added an outsider with no beauty experience to its executive committee—Bulgarian-born and French-educated Lubomira Rochet, now 37.” Read more at AdAge.
Read More“A group of YouTube beauty experts are adding a professional touch to their videos. Collective Digital Studio has launched a program with Smashbox through which style influencers will shoot at the latter company’s top-shelf studio space.” Read more at Tubefilter.
Read More“Think you’ve got what it takes to be a master of maquillage? Then you’re just what Val Garland is looking for. With a list of clients that resembles a veritable who’s who of the fashion industry, Garland is heading up a new course in partnership with Mastered, an online fashion school.” Read more at i-D.
Read More“When Sephora launched in the U.S. in 1998, it radically changed the cosmetics buying experience, replacing the controlled department store counter transaction with a hands-on, candy store-style field day for makeup lovers. In recent years, the brand has aggressively integrated digital and in-store retail, and today opened its new Innovation Lab.” Read more at Fast Company.
Read More“At first blush, Stowaway might seem like a niche e-commerce site geared toward world travelers or trial-size beauty product junkies. But the new direct-to-consumer cosmetics startup, which launched today, also aims to wipe away several smudges on the beauty industry blueprint.” Read more at Fortune.
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