With 4.8 million private domain users and GMV exceeding 100 million, how does beauty retail giant Sephora plan its private domain?

Beauty and cosmetics are one of the fastest growing categories in the domestic consumer market. At present, the beauty and cosmetics track is seriously "involuted". This is due to the overall economic downturn under the epidemic. People's consumption needs have also changed. The purchase of non-essential goods has also begun to decline, and users also pay more attention to shopping services and experience.

Under this consumption trend, brands are forced to pay more attention to the repurchase scenarios of old users and their own service upgrades, continuously improving their own moats, and thus began to build digital transformation and establish private domain traffic operations.

Sephora is one example. As a beauty retail giant, Sephora began to deploy corporate WeChat in 2020, acquiring more than 4.8 million customers. At the same time, it used refined operations to open up the mini-program link and drove the number of members to increase by 500,000 through an interactive game.

During the "618" carnival in 2021, the mini program's GMV exceeded 100 million, a year-on-year increase of 60%.

So how does Sephora develop its private domain? Let’s analyze it for you.

01 Case Background

1. Brand Introduction

Sephora, a world-renowned cosmetics retailer, was founded in Limoges, France in 1969. Sephora joined the global luxury brand company LVMH in 1997.

Sephora has 1,665 stores in 21 countries around the world. In April 2005, they opened their first store in mainland China in Shanghai.

2. Market size

In 2020, the scale of China's beauty and personal care market reached 519.9 billion yuan, and it is estimated that the scale of China's beauty and personal care market will reach 617.1 billion yuan in 2022.

3. User scale

Sephora's consumers are mainly located in first- and second-tier coastal cities, mainly in Shanghai and Guangdong. They are generally young, with an age distribution of 20-29 years old, and most of them are young women who have already joined the workforce and have a certain economic foundation.

02 Traffic Matrix Disassembly

1. Physical stores

Sephora has more than 300 physical stores in 88 cities across the country. When users go to the store to shop, the shopping guide will guide them to add the company's WeChat or register as a member, and direct users to WeChat in real time, connecting online and offline channels to maximize benefits.

2. Official Account

Path 1: Follow Sephora’s official WeChat account. The automatic welcome message will guide users to click on the link to bind their membership card, introduce the value of the company’s WeChat account, and guide users to add a “Beauty Consultant”.

Path 2: Click "Beauty Consultant" in the menu bar, and a poster with the WeChat QR code will automatically pop up. You can scan the code to directly add WeChat as a friend.

3. Video Account

Sephora’s video account is connected to the official account and is also an important channel for brand promotion, event promotion, and communication and interaction with consumers.

Video accounts mainly include product introductions, live broadcasts, event promotions, etc. The homepage of the video account has traffic points for mini programs and stores, which can be redirected to the corresponding page by clicking on them. In addition, by clicking on the details of the video account and participating in comments or messages, users will have the opportunity to receive interactive benefits.

4. Mini Programs

Sephora has set up a [Beauty Live Broadcast] area at the bottom of the mini program, regularly conducts live broadcast activities, and cultivates user habits through fixed live broadcast time.

At the same time, the content of live broadcast is diversified. It not only explains the products in detail, but also tells about some beauty trends, celebrities shopping in stores, fan benefits, etc., which brings freshness to users. Live broadcast can maximize the benefits of private domain operations.

5. TikTok

Sephora has 2.17 million followers on Douyin, 3.98 million likes, and the topic collection #美力日记 has more than 40 million views. The video content mainly promotes products, brands, and topic activities.

The account homepage can be set up with official website, member club, product showcase, live broadcast updates, participation topics, fan groups and other traffic paths. You can jump to the corresponding page by clicking.

6. Weibo

Sephora has 2.87 million followers on Weibo, and 19.77 million likes and comments. The main content of the account is product introduction, new product promotion, and reward interaction. A fan group entrance is set up on the homepage, and users can apply to join the community by following the account.

7. Xiaohongshu

Sephora has 80,000 followers on Xiaohongshu and 330,000 related notes. The account mainly introduces the latest product information and the latest event promotion.

There are store traffic touchpoints on the account homepage. Users can click to see the recent offline stores and related notes posted by the recommender, thereby guiding online users to offline stores for product experience.

03 Analysis of the character IP

Sephora's WeChat ID is divided into two types: male and female. The male ID is Aaron and the female ID is Andi. The main function of WeChat ID is to promote the latest event information and answer questions for users. At the same time, the content of the WeChat Moments operation remains consistent. The following is a breakdown of the WeChat ID IP:

1. Personal positioning

Nickname: Beauty Consultant-Aaron/Beauty Consultant-Andi

Avatar: Anime character

Role positioning: Exclusive "Beauty Consultant", sharing exclusive privileges and providing one-to-one exclusive services

2. Automatic welcome message

After adding the WeChat account, the WeChat account will automatically send a welcome message. The welcome message mainly introduces the user's role. In addition, if the user wants to join the community, he needs to ask actively and then be invited to join by the Meili consultant.

3. Moments content

Content frequency: 1 piece/day

Release time: Unfixed

Moments content: Mainly promote the latest activities, product promotions, share skin care tips, etc. Moments are all about releasing product information, without IP-related content and life-related content, it will be more like mechanical customer service, it is not easy to cultivate trust with users, and it is difficult to have in-depth communication with users.

04 User Operation Analysis

Sephora has achieved refined user operations through multiple channels and methods, and realized fission conversion. The following is a detailed analysis.

1. Community Operation

1) Community positioning

Group nickname: Sephora Exclusive Privileges 2001 Group;

Group positioning: welfare group;

Community value: Promote the latest welfare activities and generate conversions; answer questions for group members;

Community welcome message: After a user joins the group, an automatic welcome message will be triggered immediately, introducing the community's exclusive benefits and benefit schedule, and guiding users to participate in activities on time. In addition, users can click on the link to view more detailed rules of the community.

2) Community content

Sephora's community operation content is regular. It releases content in fixed sections at fixed times and uses different activities to increase the activity of users in the community, thereby prompting users to convert.

Let's take the example of adding a community to operate the sop for a certain day:

1. 11:00am: The list of winners will be announced. Briefly introduce the rules of the event and remind the next time the list will be announced; 15:00pm: Community activity - Fun Connection. Introduce the rules of the event, and the content of the event will be related to the ingredients of Sephora products;
2. Live broadcast promotion at 19:00. Introduce the live broadcast time and product benefits;
3. 20:00 Good product recommendations. The promoted products are related to community activities.
4. 22:00 Evening Popular Science Beauty Knowledge.

2. Community Operation

1) Community Content

Sephora has set up the [Meiyin Community] in its mini program and app, with a layout similar to that of Xiaohongshu. Amateur users share real shopping experiences or notes on product recommendations to attract interaction. Official users share product promotion content, with product links inserted at the bottom to encourage users to actively recommend products.

2) Community Benefits

The community divides users into 8 levels, namely babies, kindergarteners, preschoolers, elementary school students, young handsome guys, school idols, pretty boys, male gods, and national husbands.

Level up by evaluating the quality and quantity of your articles. Completing tasks will earn you achievements such as grains, ribbons, and badges, which can be used in draws and prizes.

3. User fission

Sephora has set up a "girlfriends group buying" function, which attracts users to share consumption by offering discounts or extra gifts for group buying. This not only drives sales of products, but also expands the user base and achieves member fission.

05 Membership System Analysis

Sephora has set up a membership system in the WeChat mini program and e-commerce platform. Both are based on a growth-oriented membership + points system, and the operations are basically the same. The following analysis will focus on the membership system in the mini program.

1. Growth Member

Mini Program members are mainly divided into 5 levels. Users can upgrade through consumption. The higher the level, the more benefits they enjoy. The details are as follows:

• Pink Card Member: Register to become a member. Enjoy exclusive coupons for new members, beauty services, and new product trials. White Card Member: Make any purchase to become a member. Enjoy exclusive coupons for new members, beauty services, new product trials, accumulate points, and redeem points as you wish.
• Black Card Members: Cumulative consumption of RMB 1,500 or more. Enjoy exclusive coupons for new members, beauty services, new product trials, accumulated points, points redemption, exquisite birthday gifts, double points in birthday month, beauty privileges, and exclusive coupons.
• Gold Card Member: Cumulative consumption of RMB 7,500 or more. Enjoy exclusive coupons for new members, beauty services, new product trials, accumulated points, points redemption, exquisite birthday gifts, double points in birthday month, beauty privileges, exclusive coupons, first-come, first-served, member days

2. Points system

Users can earn points by spending (1 yuan = 1 point). If they spend during their birthday month or brand events, they can earn multiple points. Points can be redeemed for coupons, trial packages, or charity.

06 Summary

Finally, let’s summarize Sephora’s highlights and shortcomings in private domain operations:

1. Case highlights

Complete private domain closed loop: The ultimate retention and conversion of private domain traffic depends on whether the brand has formed a complete closed loop. Sephora has built a complete private domain closed loop through shopping guide + WeChat account + community + live broadcast, with each component linked together, to achieve efficient conversion of the brand's private domain.

2. Insufficient cases

Inadequate operation of enterprise WeChat accounts: Some enterprise WeChat accounts do not have an automatic welcome message, and there is no group entry guidance in the community traffic. Users need to apply to join the group before sending the group entry link, which to a certain extent leads to poor user service experience. In addition, the Moments are full of promotional content, with little daily life content, which is not easy to cultivate user trust.

Author: Yan Tao Sanshou

Source: WeChat public account "Yan Tao Sanshou (ID: yantao-219)"