Will Amazon Win Beauty Market Over Sephora?
Yulia Plakhotnyuk ????
Driving Business Growth I International Brand Director, Export I CMO I Digital Business Transformation I Retail, Omnichannel Consumer Experience, Go To Market, Customer Success I Beauty Industry, Luxury
Last week I have had a chance to go to Milan and see the 1st ever physiacal Amazon parapharmacy. I was very excited to see consumer experience and innovation offered by Retail Game Changer, and I am happy to share what I've seen with you.
Location and visibility
I don't know Milan that well. The pharmacy is located in 2 minutes walk from the undeground and train station at Piazzale Cadorna. It occupies corner at the ground floor of the beautiful building. I haven't seen any other retail nearby, but assume that traffic can be good there.
The pharmacy is visble from far, the signage is illuminated, and the windows are nicely decorated with products. I haven't noticed any screens inside the windows.
Space, assortment and visual merchandising
The pharmacy is very spacious, much more spacious than average French or British pharmacy. It looks more like beauty store with bays along the walls and tables with testers and glorifiers between walls and windows. There is a small counter with the medicines, and the till is located in that area. The rest of the space is owned by beauty products.
There are screens above the bays with the products (fuctioning as visuals) and also some larger promotional screens are hanging from the ceiling.
There is one person in the room who is providing consultations and taking payments.
The brands are mainly from L'Oreal, and only dermacosmetics brands. Each brand takes much larger space than normal. I assume it will change when more brands join the game. To be honest i was a bit disappointed with the product range. Nothing unfamiliar, nothing Amazon exclusive.
The quality of the furniture is nice. On the contrast, visual merchandising glorifiers and communication look like temporary cheap solutions. Looking at them I was thinking that there is some production delay, and the proper displays and communication units will arrive shortly.
Derma Bar and Skincare Diagnostics
There is a separate area at the back of the store. It is smaller nice and cosy space with diagnostic station. Some brands are located in both areas.
The diagnostic is accompanied by the beauty adviser. There were a few people waiting for the consultation. I assume it could be self-service, but the interface is in Italian, therefore it was a rare case when I needed the assistance.
The diagnostic itself was pretty detailed. Not sure it is very accurate as my skin condition has been diagnosed close to perfect (I would disagree). However there was no any sales closing. The resukts cannot be send to the email, and no products were recommended after. Again there was a feeling that there is still work in progress. Recalling Amazon online experience it is difficult to imagine that they are not trying to close deal and increase number of units sold to each customer.
It will be very interesting to see how Amazon will progress in physical beauty retail. With its purchasing power and retail expertise it can change the game. There are massive opportunities to implement in the store, and I would love to revisit this location in a few months or see if Amazon opens the other points of sale. At the moment it cannot replace yet Sephora or other beauty stores. However everything may happen in a future.
And what do you thing about Amazon project? Do you think it will play hard physical beauty reatil game? Let's discuss.
Merci pour cette visite! Hate de découvrir. J’irai à la fin du mois. Nous verrons si des évolutions sont à noter !
Store design & Visual merchandising Director
2 周Thanks for sharing your experience in store. Looking forward to see how this Amazon B&M environment evolves, likely with more elevated and educational VM content to better suit this highly competitive segment !
Passionate about helping pharma companies navigate complex market dynamics and optimize their marketing efforts. 20 years in pharma marketing, local and global levels. Excellence in launches and multi-tasking projects
2 周Thank you Yulia Plakhotnyuk ???? very curious if it scale up
Global Marketing Director at Taggstar
2 周Super insightful - know Milan very well and can picture where this is. Thank you Yulia Plakhotnyuk ???? for sharing
Director of Marketing, Category Management, and Operations ? Change and Culture Specialist empowering teams and delivering results ? Founder of MaGéAu Naturel ? Skincare from Cancer Survivor
2 周10 years ago, asking "Are you on Amazon?" was common in the beauty industry. Retailers soon learned they couldn't block brands, and brands know they have to guard their image. Now, with brick-and-mortar making a comeback, it'll be interesting to see if the game changes. Not only in terms of image, but also in pricing strategies.