One way JCPenney is trying to differentiate itself and squeeze more dollars from its existing customers is to upgrade and rebrand the chain’s 900 in-house beauty salons, interim CEO Myron Ullman told a group of investors during a tour of the chain’s new Brooklyn, N.Y., store in October. “We are the largest beauty salon operator under one name in the U.S.,” he said. “A beauty customer tends to come to the store eight times a year, and she spends twice as much per visit as the average customer, so it is twice as many visits, twice as much spending when they are in the store. You can’t get your hair done online. So we think the salon business is an opportunity for us to get additional visits in bricks-and-mortar.” JCPenney plans to grow sales by adding more Sephora boutiques in existing stores, Ullman said. “We initially thought we would have about 5 percent of our store sales with Sephora when Sephora is in a store. Today it is in high single digits, much higher than our original expectation, and it is growing,” Ullman said, adding that Penney also plans to expand many of its existing 500 in-store Sephora boutiques. “Our Sephora customer comes more often, and the second-most-cross-shopped customer in the store, so she shops other categories. So we truly believe that Sephora is a differentiator. It is currently comping double digits.”
