Clinique Redesigns In-Store Display to Self-Serve

The Sephora self-serve model was revolutionary when it launched in the U.S. in 1999. Beauty shoppers continue to love the relaxed, self-serve, no-pressure environment, and it seems like major beauty brands are sitting up and finally taking notice.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal story, Clinique, the largest makeup and skin-care brand in the U.S., has given its department-store selling space a makeover, creating an environment where consumers can shop uninhibited, experimenting with new products without interference from a salesperson.

“Carry a Clinique browsing basket and we’ll leave you alone. Promise,” reads a sign above the stack of shopping baskets. Clinique’s trained salespeople wearing the familiar white lab coats are still on hand to answer questions or demonstrate in a full consultation, but the only time shoppers must interact with them is when they pay.

In Clinique’s new approach, called “Service As You Like It,” consumers can open wide drawers and help themselves to product without asking permission. “Know what you need? Just grab and go,” labels say.

This “open sell” environment is a huge shift away from the traditional one-on-one selling typically found in most beauty brand counters.

Clinique says its new strategy has led to double-digit growth in dollar sales at many stores.

Ricardo Quintero, senior vice president and global general manager at Clinique, says customers who previously shopped for mass-market brands are responding to the new design.”We were forcing a different type of relationship and any relationship that is forced is a bad thing,” Mr. Quintero says. “Consumers wanted the freedom to have knowledge and service on demand.”

Wonder which beauty brands are next in this rising trend?