Lack Of Authenticity Trips Up Luxury Retailers But Lets Sephora Shine In Consumer Engagement

Research by Shareablee released in advance of Black Friday and the start of the biggest shopping season of the year shows Sephora is considerably outperforming other retailers on social media this year. Sephora had 2.4 million consumer interactions (which includes reactions, shares, comments, retweets, favorites) across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with engagement on Instagram especially important. This contrasts with big box and luxury retailers that all showed declines in social engagement, with Homegoods down 74%, Barneys off 50% and Bergdorf Goodman down 39% compared to last year. Shareablee CEO and Founder, Tania Yuki puts the shift down to greater consumer skepticism about retailer engagement attempts: “The consumer is much more skeptical of the retail season this year, and are rewarding only those retailers truly making an effort to be authentic and to add value to their shopping and research…”.