Improving customer loyalty and retention through direct online sales
Our client, a leading French skincare manufacturer, has a long-standing commitment to customer satisfaction, which is at the core of their brand strategy. For over four decades, the company’s main sales channel was supplying products via distributors and beauty salons across the globe. While this strategy allowed our client to manage both the brand image and customize services on request, not dealing directly with end customers made it hard for the company to fully grasp buyers’ needs and meet them efficiently. As a result, the luxury brand sought to improve its sales approach with direct-to-customer services and keep a high-quality shopping experience at the same time.
Developing an e-commerce platform for a direct-to-consumer business
BearingPoint supported the client with designing, implementing, and launching an e-commerce platform for its business to consumer activities. By leveraging Salesforce Commerce Cloud, the team defined the user interface, the administrative and support functions, and a marketing tool. BearingPoint supported the client in the coordination of third-party partners to ensure consistency between the defined business process and the technical implementation while securing the overall implementation and deployment planning. All the components of the new portal were configured in accordance with the technical data flows, including the customer profile, product pages, checkout, contact form, order status updates, and others.
Together with the client, BearingPoint then integrated the e-commerce platform with the existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to facilitate the fast and effective transfer of logistics data. Furthermore, the business operations for customer service and logistics were also established. Through a series of workshops, BearingPoint trained the client’s staff to handle the specifics of the new e-commerce platform and recommended the set-up of new roles to facilitate this kind of activity.
Aiming for innovation, BearingPoint also embedded a powerful online consultation tool that recommends the best products for each skin type based on a scoring system that analyzes the skin's features through a photo.
Increasing sales by offering a new and exclusive shopping experience
With the new e-shop in place, our client enhanced its business with a powerful revenue stream that doubled sales in just one year. The company gained a complete view of its customer base, with over 50,000 new contacts to reach out to with customized offers based on their e-commerce preferences. This further enables our client to create and implement strategic marketing campaigns using reliable customer insights.
Moreover, the new e-commerce platform provides a tailored online shopping experience through features such as dynamic content on the home page depending on the customer profile, an advanced store locator, and personalized customer accounts for diagnosis and prescription. The introduction of additional services, including the e-gift card and online consultation tool, has further enhanced the omni-channel customer experience and reinforced the brand's position as a leader in the luxury cosmetics industry.