What Is The Law For Makeup Counters To Put Makeup On Customers
(Bloomberg Gadfly) -- It's non looking pretty for section stores.
(Bloomberg Gadfly) -- It'southward non looking pretty for department stores.
Other than electronics retailers and gas stations, department stores are the only major retail category in the U.S. in which sales fell in the 11 months through November from a year earlier, according to U.S. Census data released this calendar week.
And while most of the chat well-nigh dying department stores centers on how Amazon is eating into clothing sales as the east-commerce giant becomes the largest apparel seller in the U.S., section stores are ceding another worrisome category to online competition: beauty and cosmetics.
The shiny Chanel and Clinique makeup counters, where smartly dressed salespeople spray perfume in customers' faces and offer lotion samples, have been a staple on the footing floors of Macy's and other American department stores for decades.
Beauty and cosmetics were once considered Amazon-proof traffic-drivers to department stores, equally beauty companies had long-term deals with stores, rarely discounted their products, and barely sold their goods online. No longer.
Section stores are losing beauty market share to online retailers such as Amazon, every bit well as specialty shops such as Sephora and Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc., which have big online operations, co-ordinate to data from Euromonitor. This shift comes at a particularly rough time for department stores, which have seen sales refuse in their other major categories, clothing and electronics.
Every bit my colleague Andrea Felsted has written, in the absenteeism of large mode trends in wearing apparel, the Selfie Generation has flocked to dazzler brands that stoke sales with social media and technological innovations including plumping lipsticks, makeup-contouring kits, and nail polishes that go along similar spray paint. Sephora, Ulta and others take pounced on these trends, offering tutorials, in-store experiences and celebrity partnerships. New York-based beauty shop Ricky's NYC even opened a pop-upward concept shop, # (pronounced "hashtag"), to showcase only products made famous on Instagram.
These trends have helped beauty and cosmetics become one of the fastest-growing segments in retail -- but much of that extra juice is going online and to specialty stores.
And the heaviest spending on dazzler and cosmetics is concentrated among department stores' nigh-coveted customers -- millennials with cash in their pockets.
Bucking the tide is J.C. Penney Co., which made a genius move a decade ago under then-CEO Mike Ullman to open Sephora stores within J.C. Penney locations. Now, more one-half of J.C. Penney's 1,000 stores have a Sephora store inside, and beauty is one of the chain's 3 best-performing merchandise divisions, along with home and fine jewelry.
Macy's tried to replicate that success terminal twelvemonth with its $210 one thousand thousand purchase of Blue Mercury, a beauty and spa shop. But the beauty chain remains as well small to actually make a dent in Macy's fast-declining sales, with fewer than two dozen locations within Macy'south stores. And its online shop -- and brand recognition amongst younger customers -- needs improvement.
It'southward time for Macy'due south and other department stores to look in the mirror and realize they are falling backside. For i thing, they demand to attain out to consumers where they are, instead of expecting them to just show up at their makeup counters.
Dazzler churr has migrated away from antiquated store counters and mag ads. Shoppers now turn to experts on YouTube, Facebook and other social media to keep up with the latest trends. Every bit the give-and-take moves online, product sales follow. Smart section stores volition join this chat.
And stores need more than-exciting shopper lures than free makeup bags or perfume samples. Hosting YouTube celebrities for makeup tutorials or using touchscreens to explain Kim Kardsashian'due south latest contouring techniques could requite shoppers some reason to come up back to the makeup counter.
Otherwise, things volition keep getting uglier for department stores.
This column does non necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Shelly Banjo is a Bloomberg Gadfly columnist covering retail and consumer goods. She previously was a reporter at Quartz and the Wall Street Journal.
To contact the author of this story: Shelly Banjo in New York at sbanjo@bloomberg.internet.
What Is The Law For Makeup Counters To Put Makeup On Customers,
Source: https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/department-store-makeup-counters-are-struggling-too
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