Sephora: Our Pinterest followers spend 15X more than our Facebook fans

February 27, 2013 9:13 AM
John Koetsier
John Koetsier
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Pinterest just raised $200 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. But if the company seriously starts to monetize what marketers like Sephora are finding in the social shopping platform, two and a half billion dollars is too cheap.

Far too cheap.

Beauty products retailer and digital trailblazer Sephora says that per-capita, its Pinterest followers spend more money than its Facebook followers, and not just a little bit more. In fact, Pinterest users spend 15 times more on Sephora products than Facebook followers, Sephora’s head of digital Julie Bornstein told me this morning.

“The reality is that when you’re in the Pinterest mindset, you’re actually interested in acquiring items, which is not what people go to Facebook for,” Bornstein said. “Facebook continues to be just a great customer interaction tool that gives us the real-time ability to dialog with our customer; it’s a big customer-service venue for us.”

Ouch.

If you’re Facebook, that’s gotta hurt. You’ve just been downgraded from the bright and shining future of social shopping to the back office hell of customer support.

medium_2442599781Sephora jumped on Pinterest hard, mostly because its largely-female marketing team were enthusiastic early adopters. When the company re-launched its website in April last year, it was one of the first retailers to integrate the ‘Pin It’ button sitewide. Individual users share their lists of what Sephora products they love and why — rather than just a putting together a list of fashion products, they can use Pinterest to tell a visual story about why a certain eyeshadow is so great and seek to inspire others. And a dedicated resource on the Sephora digital team helps Sephora staff craft Pinterest strategies.

All of which has made an impact.

Sephora’s following on Facebook is still huge and significant, at 4.7 million fans. And it’s a critical early-warning system for the company. “We hear instantly” about what people love and don’t love, Bornstein says, and Sephora clients connect with each other on the platform, giving each other fashion and beauty tips and advice.

But in terms of immediately measurable commercial impact? Pinterest is currently unmatched.

“E-commerce really is still in the first innings of really leveraging the power of social,” Bornstein says. “But we’ve experimented a lot with social shopping, and this is the first one that has really gotten to scale.”

photo credit: cobalt123 via photopin cc, swanky via photopin cc

  • http://juliantrueflynn.com Julian True Flynn

    Reblogged this on Julian True Flynn and commented:
    I hate Facebook, I said it once and I’ll say it again. They make us marketers and or business owners go through so much crap for a service that is not that valuable.. We can be marketing on Pinterest (what this article is saying), Tumblr, Stumbleupon, TWITTER (my favorite), Foursquare, Linkedin, and the list goes on. Facebook doesn’t provide enough value for the crap they make us put up with not showing our statuses to all our fans — and then make us PAY to then reach OUR FANS.
    Instead taking the time that you would have spent working out Facebook’s crazy restrictions in their FB ads (don’t get me started).
    Sephora also outlined something interesting in this article where they just see some social media sites for customer interaction (they were referencing Facebook). It gives insight that they don’t just go to these social networks to try and convert these people into customers, but with the main focus of being in their potential customers radar. Interacting with a customer while they waste time on a social network like Facebook (and they’re definately not going to buy something), they may then buy something later when viewing the web — or your interacting with previous customers and keeping them in good graces with your brand will cause a repeat purchase from them.

  • http://ome.wordpress.com/ O me

    Reblogged this on o me technology and commented:
    Facebook is no longer interesting, and it’s feed is more commercial than ever. Users are moving to more focused social sites – and here’s another proof.

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