NEW YORK — If it’s true that love is sweeter the second time around, then Lancome and Macy’s are bound for a very amorous online relationship. The French cosmetics firm will have a Lancome boutique at macys.com, which features a complete array of Lancome products for sale, advice from Lancome makeup artists and spokesmodels, and even online personal consultations. Lancome products had previously been sold on the Macy’s site some 18 months ago, but Lancome withdrew from the relationship and launched its own e-commerce initiative in November 1999 at Lancome.com.
What prompted the happy reconciliation? “We feel that now the technology allows us to present the brand online in a way that mimics what we have off-line,” said Sarah Williams, vice president of interactive marketing at Lancome, in an interview Thursday. “We devote the same amount of attention to our Web presence as we would to building a counter at a department store. Therefore, it was vital for us to be able to control the entire message — both online and off-line.” The previous relationship with Macy’s, according to Lancome, fell short of these requirements. “When Macy’s was selling Lancome about a year and a half ago, we asked them not to do it anymore because it wasn’t reflecting the image of the brand properly,” said Bill Cornish, senior vice president of Internet and e-business for L’Oreal, U.S.A. “It was more of a mass catalog format back then.” Lancome’s concerns about getting lost in the shoppers’ smorgasbord of Macys.com have, this time around, apparently been resolved. Enabled by iChannel software developed by the San Francisco-based firm iMediation, the Lancome boutique is now prominently featured among other key merchants by clicking on the “boutiques” section of the Macy’s home page. Lancome expects that the brand will be further enhanced in the future through a more prominent display on the Macy’s home page. Lancome oversees its brand image at the boutique, while Macy’s takes care of customer service and merchandise fulfillment. Lancome will not necessarily shun other online retail suitors. “Our relationship with Macy’s online is not an exclusive one,” said Cornish. “They were simply the first to commit to this type of relationship.” Lancome will also continue to maintain its own informational and e-commerce site at lancome.com, but will not be promoting its Macy’s alliance at that site. As Lancome president Luc Nadeau explained, the Lancome site’s unaffiliated stance is a prudent piece of business diplomacy. “Lancome.com is primarily designed to enhance brick and mortar,” said Nadeau. “Lots of people are driven to our off-line stores and boutiques from our Web site. Therefore, we need to keep the Web site neutral in respect to our retail partners.”
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Lancome has clearly opened a new page in its Internet and e-commerce playbook. Just over a year ago, L’Oreal chairman and chief executive officer Lindsay Owen-Jones seemed to hinge his bets on the Lancome Web site to take care of e-tail business. “It is our intention to sell only on our own site,” he said in October 1999. “We are better off doing it all by ourselves and controlling the process.” During the intervening year of dot-com fallout, factoring in competition from such upstarts as gloss.com and heavyweights like Sephora.com, Lancome may now realize that it needs some help from its friends.
Macy’s, in this regard, makes an ideal companion, and Lancome plans to start spreading the news about their new relationship. “We’ll be working both the Lancome and Macy’s database to let customers know about the boutique,” said Williams, who noted the success of Lancome’s previous e-mail promotional campaigns. “It will be the Internet version of calling out to customers from the counter.”