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themselves, explore new products and receive tailored recommendations. Mobile devices in the hands of sales associates give shoppers an easy, line-free checkout experience. What's more, Sephora.com creates the same experience on its website, providing discovery, help, advice, samples and a fun shopping experience. Experiences that today's hyper-channel shoppers have at retail destinations such as Sephora have raised the bar in terms of what consumers expect from beauty across the board. How has social media impacted the industry? What do you see happening as we move forward? What we found in our latest "From Buzz to Buy Report 3.0" is that despite all of the hype, social media is actually the least persuasive tool for assisting consumers with choosing what to buy—it's behind manufacturer and retailer websites, TV/ magazine ads and even the forgotten sales associate. The future of shopping, though, is better seen by watching Millennials. For them, their social networks are more important for shopping information. While we saw that only one-quarter of people think to go to their social network to find more information about something they want to buy, that influence grows to 40% among Millennials. The bottom line is that digital and traditional sources of information impact buying decisions and retailers need to present their messages everywhere—on their websites, in emails and on Facebook too. What we need to focus on is the continued importance of friends and family. We like to say that friends are actually the new sales associates. Peer reviews are playing a huge role whether through social media, on retailer sites or even in the store. One-third of people overall have increased their use of peer reviews in the last year. But the importance of peer reviews is that they do influence buying. We see that 7 in 10 people who read reviews feel better informed and are ready to make a buying decision after reading them. Retailers recognize the importance of peers and are increasingly incorporating reviews into their websites and even in the store. Whether it's Kiehl's 46 July 2013 | beautystorebusiness.com in Bloomingdale's displaying the "Top Reviewed" brands from its website or C&A; Brazil, which has a running total of Facebook "Likes" on merchandise hangers in the store, it begs the question: Who owns your brand message? How has technology impacted the business, and what do you foresee concerning it? Technology is changing everything, and it's happening very quickly. In-store selfcheckout kiosks and sales associates armed with mobile devices are eliminating the need for traditional checkout lines and the space for "impulse buys." Tablets and touch screens are everywhere. New technology is giving shoppers easy access to product information, self-assessments for tailored recommendations and links to locate products online, which may not be available in-store. Interestingly, these are all things that shoppers would traditionally rely on the sales associate for, but as more technol- ogy is deployed in-store, the role of the sales associate is changing. The sales associate's role will definitely not disappear, but it will certainly evolve. As everyone knows, technology breaks and malfunctions, and it can't fully take the place of a warm, knowledgeable and helpful interaction with a real person. In fact, we saw in "Buzz to Buy 3.0" that onethird of women look to sales associates for shopping information. That's actually up 4 percentage points from 2011. The future of beauty retail will be a mix of the old and the new. The ideal balance is being able to offer shoppers service any way they want it—the tools to help educate and inform, and the right staff available to answer questions, assist with technology and to further personalize the entire experience. An ideal example is Sephora's Fragrance Finder—a large touch screen enables a shopper to take a brief quiz that identifies her personality. Based on the profile, tailored product recommendations