23/05/2010
Sales Management Terms Paper | Sarah Broussard |

ESCEM | Study of the CRM (customer relationship management) at Sephora |

INTRODUCTION
Like we saw it in sales management class, the customer relationship management is one challenge among other of the sales force management challenges in the 21st century. The customer relationship management consists in knowing how to target,to attract and to keep the good customers and represent a determining factor of the success of the company. To build and to develop relations with its customers is a challenge, particularly when the company possesses thousands (even millions) of customers who communicate with this one of multiple manners. To arrive at a satisfactory result, the management systems of customer relationshipmanagement have to allow the persons in charge of company to understand better their customers to adapt and personalize their products or their services. He also has to allow the various departments of the company to collaborate through the sharing of information concerning any interaction with the customer.
It is in the middle of 1990s when is advanced one of the central concepts of the customerrelationship and one of its main interests for the company: the considerable profitability generated by a long term relationship. The development of customer loyalty and the future income which he can so generate are put in perspective in a financial and accounting optics. The notion of  » lifetime value  » develops who allows to define the forward value of a customer all the time that is maintained hisrelation with the company.
On a market more and more competitive, perfume shops bet on new selling points arrangements, the referencing of exclusive brands to distinguish itself from the offer of the competitors, and the development of a wide range of beauty services to the clientele. That’s why, with a good customer relationship management in the sector of beauty distribution can make thedifference .We will study the case of the brand Sephora.
About SEPHORA
History
Nowadays, Sephora is one of the biggest retail chains of cosmetics. Sephora revolutionized the world market of cosmetics with its unique concept of retailing which bases on an outstanding assortment of brands and products, an original concept of shops and the skills of its sale’s councillors. Sephora proposes to itscustomers numerous categories of products proposed by more than 200 prestigious or emergent brands (dermato, make-up, perfumes, bath and well-being, hair and oral hygiene), as well as under its own brand. Established in France in 1969, Sephora was acquired in 1997 by the Parisian group LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), the world’s leading luxury products group. Celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2008,Sephora Amérique manages more than 220 shops in the United States and in Canada, as well as the first web site dedicated to the beauty, Sephora.com. Sephora Europe counts more than 500 shops in 14 countries, among which 30 in China. Thanks to the recent partnerships concluded with HSN, world specialist of the on-line sale, and JCPenney, one of the main American chains of department stores,Sephora is today accessible to a clientele vaster than ever.
Concept
The concept of sales at Sephora was to create a shop designed to allow customers to walk between products and to try products freely without the automatic help of Sephora staff members. So Sephora mixs convenience goods and luxury items in self-service very opened up spaces. Sephora applies the merchandising techniques of the bigconsumption to the selective distribution. Sephora stores propose generally 3 different spaces: the fragrance, the colour ( the make-up) and the care. All the brands are treated fairly, aligned on display stands in alphabetical order (perfumes particularly), and testers, samples are available and can be use by customers as often they want. The section make-up is implanted according to the harmony…