keup sessions and 15-minute “beauty play” sessions to bring virtual looks to life. And for the first time in China, the store gives Sephora a purpose-built event space, the Beauty Live Studio, where it can engage with its beauty community for exclusive celebratory events and regular masterclasses on the trendiest looks, latest brands, and products. It’s all about experience According to Alia Gogi, president of Sephora Asia, the guiding principle for the Store of the Future concept in Singapore and Shanghai has always been the customer  experience. “When we started this journey back in 2018, we asked ourselves, what would keep consumers coming back to our stores? The straightforward answer is it’s all about the experience,” she told Inside Retail. Gogi said the company conducted feasibility studies to focus on specific wants and desires of consumers in Singapore and Shanghai.  The findings revealed three main areas of focus – human, digital and space – that influenced the way the team thought about the design, offering and concept of the stores.   “Leveraging technology and digital tools, our aim is to use them to deepen and unlock the consumer journey so that customers can explore, discover, learn and engage with Sephora as seamlessly as possible across channels,” she added. While several of the touchpoints are similar across both stores, the team took things one step further in Shanghai, with enhancements in areas such as skin analysis, makeup trends, and integrated learnings specific to Chinese consumers’ needs.  “The beauty classes and services that we offer in Singapore have had tremendous success, and we have replicated those in the Shanghai store as well,” she noted. Unique preferences Gogi elaborated that the team has noticed a huge emphasis on skincare products in China. To cater to this, the company has customised several touchpoints specific to feedback received from the Chinese market.  “For example, we have collaborated with a local technology partner to develop a skin analysis device that provides personalised and specific product recommendations to each customer based on their unique skin conditions,” she said. The company has also leveraged artificial intelligence and big data to help customers find makeup looks that suit their specific features. “Building the community of beauty lovers is also a big focus and you’ll notice that a lot of the digital elements, beauty services and free beauty classes on offer cater specifically to that,” she noted. In terms of product assortment, the team also sees huge potential in C-beauty brands, thanks to their intimate understanding of Asian skin features, foundations and formations.  “Equally, cult brands such as Hourglass, Tatcha, Pat McGrath and Anastasia are all highly sought after and prominently featured in our store,” she stated. Technology matters While the company is still leveraging the first store in Singapore to learn from the connections, data and insights, Gogi believes that the future of retail is one that provides a seamless and elevated customer experience, which marries technology with the physical world. “I believe that, when done right, technology can enhance the in-store experience in several ways, either by removing all friction points across the consumer journey, or by adding rich, immersive experiences to make products and services come to life,” she explained. She believes Sephora’s role is to seamlessly synchronise the database of physical stores, web, mobile app and third-party platforms to enable and elevate engagements with customers across multiple channels. Experiential retail The new stores have been described as a representation of Sephora’s “obsession for experiential retail”, and Gogi views this as the beginning of the brand’s journey as it continues to enhance and raise the bar for prestige beauty retail. “Moving from transactional to experiential, leveraging the insights from all the touchpoints in these two new concept stores, we have and will continue to roll them out progressively to different stores across our Asia network,” she said. The key to enticing customers to return repeatedly, according to Gogi, is to use digital tools and technologies to unlock the consumer journey and more importantly, to complement and enhance the human element present in all stores. “Equally important is to leverage all the insights to create the most seamless beauty experience across multiple touchpoints and channels – whether online or offline,” she concluded.