French multi-brand skin and personal care retailer Sephora, that entered the Indian market in 2013, claims to have become the largest player in the $8 billion market, growing at the rate of 22 per cent year-on-year. The company, a part of the luxury LVMH-Louis Vuitton group, operates in India in partnership with Arvind Ltd, with 17 stores at present.

Sephora India’s COO Vivek Bali spoke with BusinessLine about the company’s business strategy and gave insights on the Indian beauty market and the competition from already existing players like Shoppers Stop and Nykaa. Excerpts:

What are the plans for Sephora in India?

To be the best beauty destination in India and to transform the customer experience into an exclusive opportunity to indulge. When we look at the Indian beauty market, more than half of the business takes place in the urban centres. The focus will be on these centres, but we also can’t ignore the balance half of the business which comes from other Tier II, Tier III cities. Our expansion into Tier II cities which will start this year. We have done our market study there already.

What does your study say?

We should not go by the size of Delhi or Mumbai as they are an amalgamation of people coming from different cities, working there and then going out. Places like Lucknow or Indore have wealthy people, who shop, but outside of their cities. Our objective is that we can’t ignore this 40 per cent of the business. The best way to enhance the shopping experience of the customer is through the store. There are people who prefer online shopping but it does not gives the same experience as that of walking into a beauty store. Today, in those cities, only a few brands are there, they tend to shop online and once we open stores there I am sure the percentage of online shopping will go down.

So you don’t believe in online?

Beauty products are very difficult to shop online, specially makeup, unless you know which shade you want. The colours might look different on different types of screens. No matter how good your website is, there are different machines that will be used. Nothing to beat the experience of buying beauty products from a store.

Shoppers Stop is growing its sales channels in terms of stores, when do you plan to overtake them?

Sephora is the largest beauty retailer in the world and in the Indian market. There is no one else like us who retails so many brands. It is famous for the brand Sephora and the exclusive brands inside Sephora. We are already into three-digit crore numbers in India with only 16 stores and this is the 17th store.

Are you already the largest player in terms of sales?

In beauty retail — brick and mortar, yes, we are the largest specialty player in India. Our segment is very different. Inside Sephora we are a bridge to luxury store, we are not a mass store. Shoppers Stop is a mass beauty store. We are completely different.They cater to the mass in beauty, and Sephora caters to the bridge to luxury customer.

In India the skin tone usually varies a lot more compared to other markets. Is that a challenge?

That’s the success of Sephora as we have been able to recognisze the Indian complexion and the diversity in the complexion from North to South, West to East. and Therefore, when we bring a brand inside Sephora, we help them to build a range which caters to the Indian complexion.

Suddenly there is a spurt in men’s grooming...

Primarily, men’s skincare has taken a growth from personal care. So, products like shower gels do well. We have multi-purpose gel products for men.

What is the plan for this financial year and for the next 2-3 years?

Every year we will be opening about new 6-8 stores. By 2022, we should have 50 stores and soon ₹1000 crore in revenues.

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