Sound off on Sephora displays

[greeneyedgirl107]

So, I've been in various beauty brick and mortar stores lately and was curious what BIC thought about Sephora's displays.  What do you like?  What do you think could be improved?  How does Sephora's stack up to their competitors' displays?

[miss8]

@greeneyedgirl107 , I Don't Really Have Much Of An Opinion 😋 #IWantToTryThemAll 😂

[greeneyedgirl107]

Another issue is the decreased selection in store compared to online.  I'm curious if a rotating carousel like we see with jewelry would help.  Or, if pull out drawers would be a solution.   I was frustrated with MAC's blush selection at Macy's until I pulled out a display drawer and saw a tray of additional blushes.  It was limited, bit at least more than I had initially thought. 

[WinglessOne]

@greeneyedgirl107  By “decreased selection,” do you mean a specific store location carrying fewer shades of a product than the website? Or, a store location not displaying every shade it carries? 

The former probably has more to do with which stores get what products. My city’s flagship Ulta store has a very large MAC section, complete with makeover stations. It’s funny because that store’s right down the street—just 4-5 buildings away—from a standalone MAC store. 😂 Other Ulta stores around town have a smaller selection, though some do still have a lotta MAC. I remember when our Lincoln Park Sephora store didn’t have full (or even half) gondola space for Natasha Denona; she only got an end cap there, vs. a larger presence at other stores that carried more of her stuff. I don’t know how store inventory gets decided between Sephora and brands. I assume store traffic, sales numbers, and cost of displays/shelf space have something to do with it.

The latter sounds like more of a specific store issue. Using my flagship Ulta store again as an example: their Chanel makeup section has large pull-out drawers, but it’s kinda obvious that you can open them because of the way they’re designed. (Chanel uses the same or similar design at other retailers.) Plus, all available in-store Chanel shades are usually displayed as testers. There are also pull-out trays in the MAC section, and I’m not sure how many people realize those can be opened. I don’t recall if they have “pull” labels or not. 🤔 I like pull-out drawers & trays MUCH better than having to reach over testers to find my shade of unopened product. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten makeup on my shirt or coat sleeve reaching back there. 

Sometimes there are also deep cabinets or drawers at the bottom of gondolas. Customers aren’t supposed to open those though. 

[greeneyedgirl107]

@WinglessOne by decreased selection, I mean all of the above!

[greeneyedgirl107]

What stimulated this thread was how disappointed I was with the brush displays.  For many prestige brands, the brushes were held down by the plastic display so I only got a two dimensional idea of what the brushes were like.  For some prestige like Mario, there weren't even brushes on display but just pics.  So that wasn't better than online.  For SC, some brushes came out of the holes they were in and some didn't.   At Sephora at Kohl's, the SC brushes were under plastic; I could barely stick my finger in to touch it.

Idk why brushes aren't displayed the way other beauty products are.  If there's a fear of them going missing (which is a risk with any tester) then why not tether them with a cord like the fragrance bottle at Sephora Kohl's?

I didn't explore any prestige brushes because it was just too hard to make an informed decision. 

[SportyGirly125]

@greeneyedgirl107 @As a Sephora employee it’s about them getting stolen. Also tethering them like the fragrances won’t work either. The amount of clients that have broken the tether while I was in store is crazy. They pull or yank them so hard. I thought one client was going to lose an eye by how hard she pulled it and it broke off. The Sephora collection brushes are the same way. Clients yank them off the display all the time to test them. As a worker it gets frustrating. Also clients don’t put products back where they belong or mess up the displays. It’s so hard to keep them organized or stocked especially when we get crowds. 

we only have so much space in store. There is a lot more I could tell you….

[WinglessOne]

@SportyGirly125  I’m glad you mentioned this because I’ve wondered how often people break those tethers. Another shopper once asked me (in a store) why Sephora doesn’t put alarms on the bottles and/or tethers, like those super obnoxious clothing alarms. I said something like “do you have any idea how often those alarms would go off? Those things go off if you just look at ‘em wrong.” (Yeah, don’t ask how often I’ve accidentally set those bleepin’ alarms off, no matter how gently I handled the clothes attached to ‘em.) I’m sure that’s the last thing Sephora store employees need to deal with.

If there are audible alarms on fragrance testers, I’ll be surprised because I’ve yet to hear one, and I’ve seen a few people pull those tethers too hard. I once saw a woman let her toddler (held in her arms) keep yanking on a fragrance tester because I dunno, she thought it was funny and cute. 🙄 I told her “that’s a good way to get banned from this store… you know there are cameras, right?” I don’t know if there were actually cameras pointed at us, but that was enough to make her stop the Let’s Break the Tether game. An alarm going off would’ve scared that kid into a screaming crying fit, and then his mother would probably blame Sephora for terrifying him… Some people should just shop exclusively online. 🤦‍♀️

[SportyGirly125]

@WinglessOne @You don’t even want to know how many times a client has sprayed perfume on me because they don’t look at the nozzle direction. I even got sprayed in the eye.  

[WinglessOne]

@SportyGirly125  I can imagine. It’s happened to me too often, and I’m not in the store for hours working a shift. But no one’s gotten me in the eye 😮… ouch, I feel for you. 

[greeneyedgirl107]

@SportyGirly125 I bet you have *a lot* of insight!  I'm curious if you have any ideas on how clients could access brushes in a more 3D sense.  However, I totally understand if you aren't comfortable sharing 😀

I wish people were more respectful. 

[SportyGirly125]

@greeneyedgirl107 @There really isn’t a way. The only other option is to ask a beauty advisor  to test out the brushes we have in our brush belt. Most of the time when we are shade matching we are using the Sephora collection pro brushes on clients so they can see how we use them and what they feel like. Another way is if a brand rep is there with their brushes. 

[greeneyedgirl107]

@SportyGirly125 thanks for the insight!

[danielledanielle]

Yeah, I think it's because brushes get swiped or damaged easily.  And maybe hygiene? I can actually picture someone trying to use them, on their face 😶. Directly.

I remember them being free from the stand with the SC ones, even at S@K, but this was awhile ago, so this is just my take @greeneyedgirl107 

What gets me about some of the gondolas is the variance in popularity.  Like who is a full gondola vs who is a shelf vs who is in store.  I would frequent two stores in particular and PMG was always available, and the first time I went to one workout...I was perplexed.  Sometimes, I side eye the gondolas, like... This is popular? Really? But, I guess it is and I know the brand has to really be excelling to get the full one (I think).

One/Size has a really nice gondola IMO and I'm happy to see a full Danessa wherever (side or full)

[greeneyedgirl107]

@danielledanielle I had the same thought about brushes getting stolen or being dirty.  But can't the same be sd of makeup, skin care and hair care testers?  I don't understand why brushes are so different, or why there can't be a workaround. 

[WinglessOne]

@greeneyedgirl107  In addition to @danielledanielle’s point about tester brush upkeep by employees, I don’t think the general public (and any shoplifters in that category) has the same ick response to used brushes as they do to used makeup. Example: not many people will want a pressed powder tester that’s panned, gouged, crushed, hard-panned, etc. You can’t really fix/hide that kind of damage unless you crush and re-press the product in each pan (or in the case of hard pan, scrape the crust off the top)—and even if you do that, you’ve still lost some product. With a dirty test brush, there’s no icky or lost product (aside from any shed hairs, which you’d probably experience anyway with a brand new brush over time): just give it a sudsy wash, gently reshape, let it dry, and you’ve got a nearly good-as-new brush.

I know it’s annoying to not be able to pick up test brushes at Sephora (or Ulta lately). I kinda like how MUFE brushes used to be displayed: standing bristles-up, tips of handles glued to the display. They couldn’t be picked up, but their bristles and 95% of their handles were available to see and touch. That kind of display works best when the brushes are placed on a shelf below eye level, so folks can look down to see the entire brush head shape and size.

[greeneyedgirl107]

@WinglessOne excellent insight!

[danielledanielle]

I think you'd have to deep clean them incessantly since it's not like a skincare or makeup product you can pan @greeneyedgirl107 .

[greeneyedgirl107]

@danielledanielle good point