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A cosmetics paradise

High-end retailer Sephora, offering more than 150 brands of prestige products, will open this fall at International Plaza.

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published July 26, 2005

Sephora, a so-called candy store for cosmetics fans, will open its first store in the Tampa Bay area this fall.

The high-end retailer owned by French luxury products conglomerate LVMH Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy is shooting for a Sept. 23 opening in International Plaza in Tampa.

"It truly will round out our cosmetics and beauty lineup," said Nina Mahoney, marketing director for the mall that houses Origins, L'Occitane, Aveda, Body Shop, Bath & Body Works and MAC boutiques.

Sephora is among several retailers to open stores in International Plaza this summer and fall, including Hot Topic, Tommy Bahama, Banana Republic and the first Kenneth Cole accessories store in the Tampa Bay market. Cafe Japon, a sushi bar, will set up shop in Bay Street, the center's outdoor dining area.

The trademark black-and-white-striped Sephora storefront will encase a 4,500-square-foot shop that touts itself as the ultimate beauty buffet. Inside, shoppers will find more than 150 brands of prestige cosmetics and skin care products organized by color and use rather than the brand on the label.

The products are displayed in a self-service environment - complete with lighted mirrors, cotton balls and tissues - that encourages shoppers to dab, dust or spritz on samples. Many samples are packaged to be taken home for trial. Trained help is available but does not work on commission, so the advice is supposedly more objective.

Sales people in an industry notorious for its hovering clerks are trained to "help not hassle."

Owned by the company that makes Christian Dior, Givenchy and Guerlain perfumes and such cosmetics lines as Bliss Fresh and BeneFit, Sephora stays trendy by seeking out dozens of other brands including the most esoteric ones on the market.

The Tampa store will have exclusives on makeup lines such as Lip Fusion, specialty hair care lines such as Jonathon and fragrances such as Chloe, Demeter Summer Vacation and Dior Me, Dior Me Not Plus.

"No one else focuses on smaller and emerging brands like we do," company spokeswoman Monica Rowe said.

Sephora grew quickly into the biggest cosmetics retail chain in Europe in the 1990s. So its aggressive launch in the United States six years ago had many department store cosmetics departments shaking in their smocks.

Department stores, which control about a third of the business, for years kept their cosmetics locked up under glass. Shoppers needed to summon sales help even to check prices. That can mean a long wait if another customer is getting a makeover or an unwanted sales pitch for something else if there is no wait.

Department stores are organized by brand rather than the way customers use products. Once Sephora landed with its European sales approach, many department stores and chains such as Bath & Body Works set up self-service displays and products that can be grabbed as an option, too. Some brands such as Estee Lauder still refuse to sell to Sephora. Many longtime veterans of the cosmetic counter feared their displays would start looking too much like Walgreens.

"The department stores got really nervous, but their worst fears were never realized," said Candace Corlett, a principal with WSL Strategic Retail in New York. "Sephora is more convenient if you know what you want. But it doesn't translate that well to skin care. And frankly, many customers found those black uniforms with one gloved hand sort of off-putting."

The company subsequently stopped requiring its sales people to wear a single black glove as a signature fashion statement.

Sephora slammed on the brakes after its initial growth spurt once profits proved elusive. In 2004, however, the chain's net income rose tenfold to about $294-million. So Sephora this year plans to add 25 stores to its 110 in the United States. That's less than half what was enthusiastically envisioned five years ago. The Tampa store will be the ninth in Florida.

Specialty stores sell only about 5 percent of all the cosmetics and beauty products, according to Kline & Co. But 18 percent is sold through direct sales marketers or online sites such as Sephora.com.

--Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or 727 893-8252.

[Last modified July 26, 2005, 01:15:21]