Leading Cosmetics Chain Goes Mutichannel

Sephora used the combined technology and expertise of MGN, Inc., and Sun Microsystems to create Sephora.com. The solution integrates all of Sephora's retail enterprise systems. In addition to advanced e-commerce capabilities, the solution features catalog management and publishing, a customer support center, back-office integration, and analytics.

Already a leading chain of fragrance and cosmetics stores in the United States and France, with nearly 400 stores, Sephora wanted to deliver a branded shopping experience for beauty products that would offer high quality regardless of the channel (stores, catalogs, Web, phone, or e-mail) and build valuable relationships with its customers. Since launching Sephora.com in October 1999, the company has been offering the largest and most diverse selection of beauty products on the Internet, with more than 10,000 products and hundreds of brands.

Sephora.com has become the leading online retail beauty site in the U.S., delivering more than 20 million pages monthly, with a high level of performance. For Sephora's customers, that means a seamless shopping experience, and Sephora.com has experienced a 40 percent increase in traffic without performance or availability degradation.

To accomplish these goals, Sephora used the combined technology and expertise of MGN, Inc., and Sun Microsystems.

A Fully Integrated Multichannel Retail Solution

Barrie Lambert, Sephora's general manager, characterizes the system as "more than a shop." By that he means that Sephora offers a cross-channel shopping experience. The solution MGN and Sun provided is a powerful tool for customer acquisition and retention and for building valuable long-term relationships with customers.

"Beyond being a fully integrated solution for our back-office systems and providing retail-centric capabilities, the MGN/Sun solution is flexible enough to evolve with our business model and rapidly adapt to our needs."

The solution from MGN and Sun integrates all of Sephora's retail enterprise systems. In addition to advanced e-commerce capabilities, the solution features

• Catalog management and publishing—The MGN/Sun solution maintains the entire online product catalog and allows nontechnical users to manage assets. The tool works in conjunction with the existing retail merchandising system to seamlessly import all relevant product catalog data.
• Customer support center—The customer support modules allow Sephora customer service representatives to edit and maintain customer profiles and process orders. The tools provided enable effective customer relationship management.
• Back-office integration and analytics—Integration with Sephora's back-office enterprise systems is a critical factor in ensuring a satisfactory shopping experience for customers and maximizing internal efficiency. Real-time inventory, order fulfillment links to the distribution center, and order tracking are key features that enhance the shopping experience. Business intelligence allows Sephora to close the loop on the retail cycle by providing valuable data to help all departments in their decision making process.

Lambert explains that Sephora decided to outsource its e-commerce services to MGN. "This allows us to focus exclusively on our core business: building valuable long-term brand and customer relationships. The MGN/Sun partnership was key in our outsourcing decision, because of the companies' combined commitment to quality. Sun technology is reliable, available, and scalable, and MGN guarantees the performance and quality of its services through service-level agreements, which continue to be met even during seasonal peaks.

"We benefit from the associated cost reductions and the ability to streamline our internal cost structure. More than just being technical experts, the people at MGN and Sun understand the challenges retailers face when doing multichannel retailing."