Deborah Yeh | Influence 100

Deborah Yeh

Chief Marketing Officer
Sephora
US

 

 

During her seven 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. The focus is on making shopping as experiential and engaging as possible, for instance, Sephora’s app is 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 “The lady at the counter has been replaced by hundreds of people on YouTube.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.