Deborah Yeh | Influence 100
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Deborah Yeh

SVP Marketing and Brand
Sephora
US

 

During her six years at Sephora, Deborah Yeh has been instrumental in maintaining the company’s stature as one of the world’s most successful and innovative specialty beauty retailers at a time when retail overall is taking a hit. With a focus on making shopping as experiential and engaging as possible, for instance, Sephora has rolled out an app, complete with augmented reality capabilities that allow users to test cosmetics. The brand offers beauty classes, and has face-scanning technology that helps shoppers find products that match their skin tone. 

All of which is in keeping with Sephora’s model of giving consumers a hands-on role in the shopping experience, including trying before buying. “The lady at the counter has been replaced by hundreds of people on YouTube. There are more voices. And we are trying to cut through the confusion,” Yeh told the New York Times. Yeh joined Sephora in 2012, after spending four years as Gap’s VP of marketing and leading marketing planning for Target’s entertainment and electronics businesses before that. She is a Harvard grad.