Debenhams opens Virtual Beauty Room
Debenhams has opened a Virtual Beauty Room offering beauty tutorials and consultations, in partnership with major brands, to enable customers to access expert advice even while many of its stores are closed in line with Government guidelines.
The department store has teamed up with leading names such as Givenchy, Shiseido and Bare Minerals to deliver one-to-one virtual consultations on debenhams.com. The 30-minute consultations are bespoke to the individual customer and focus on answering every beauty need, with further brands being added to the line-up in the coming months.
In addition Debenhams will be using its Facebook and Instagram platforms to offer weeklymasterclasses featuring beauty experts sharing tips, tricks and expert techniques. This month, among others, it is offering Christmas gifting with Clarins and a fragrance masterclass with YSL.
The initiatives have been launched in response to feedback from customers saying they missed the interaction with experts on in-store beauty counters. The Virtual Beauty Room allows customers to access all the expert content in one place.
Debenhams’ Co-CEO & MD Steven Cook said of the initiative: “During these challenging times, health, beauty and wellbeing is more important than ever before. We wanted to ensure that our customers could still have access to our beauty experts to support them with all their beauty needs without having to leave home.
"That’s why we have introduced the virtual beauty room and we are delighted to be able to deliver free of charge consultations and masterclasses from some of the very best beauty houses across the globe.”
The launch of the Virtual Beauty Room follows the successful introduction of the TRY.LOVE.KEEP! service in September. This service offers customers the opportunity to test products before committing to a full size purchase.
Items including Estee Lauder's Advanced Night Repair and a selection of Marc Jacobs perfumes are delivered with a free matching sample. If a customer decides it’s not right, they can return it within 28 days for a full refund.
Debenhams also said it had added 185,000 signs ups to its Beauty Club loyalty scheme in 2020.
