Case Study: Transforming the digital presence of a leading beauty and skincare brand – Skinmart
Overview
Skinmart sought out Process Creative to help make a move from Magento to Shopify Plus. Calling upon their extensive experience in UX, design and brand, Process built a custom-designed website in Shopify Plus, one that successfully integrated with Nosto and its search and personalisation features. Since the launch of their new site, Skinmart has:
Had their revenue triple, a significant conversion increase that would not have been possible without the transition to Shopify Plus.
Experienced rock-solid infrastructure that can scale infinitely without fear of the website crashing or facing other issues during back-end management.
Optimised the customer journey, with a user-friendly interface, simplified navigation, new features and attractive design enhancing the overall user experience.
The Brand
Skinmart’s goal is to empower its customers during their skincare journey by offering products tailored to their individual needs. Their personalised approach, diverse range, and custom solutions have made them one of Australia’s leading beauty and skincare experts.
Thriving in such a competitive market as Skinmart has is an impressive accomplishment. But recently, the continual increase in emerging beauty and skincare brands has been an eye-opener. As a result, Skinmart decided that, to maintain their place in the market – and expand – a new approach was necessary.
The Challenge
With the continual upswing in popular and digitally-savvy competition, Skinmart needed to embrace digital transformation, one that fully encompasses their brand, to stand out.
As it was, they had a few things holding them back. Their infrastructure was clunky and had a lot of performance issues, with recurrent website crashes making back-end management a nerve-wracking experience. Customers found their website difficult to navigate, complicating their journey towards making a purchase. The outdated design did not capture their current brand narrative.
Skinmart chose to implement Nosto’s Personalised Search, as they were already using Nosto’s Commerce Experience Platform and sought to consolidate their tech stack. They wanted to easily leverage all of the product data, behavioural profiles, and segmentation work they’d accrued over the years through Nosto, and easily feed this into their search experience.
From day one, Skinmart had always maintained their own digital presence, carrying out everything except for coding in-house. But as a small business, and with their traffic levels rising, they increasingly found they lacked the numbers needed to keep their current site – or a new one – running as they would like.
These challenges had slowly built up over the years. Skinmart knew they needed a helping hand to overcome them all in one blow.
The Process with Process Creative
When Skinmart approached us, they were frustrated with their digital capabilities, like many of our clients. To resolve this, they had a common goal in mind – to build a Shopify website that effectively presented their brand values, was a breeze to use, and offered all the features needed to deliver a fantastic customer experience.
Their overall aim with this project was:
An optimised platform that is easy to maintain
To create an infrastructure that eliminates the chance of website downtime
Design that evokes their brand values and effectively promotes their diverse range
Higher online conversion rates and brand awareness
A successful transition to Shopify Plus
Seamless integration with Nosto, transforming commerce data into online revenue effortlessly.
Their decision to choose us as a partner was initially prompted by a recommendation from Shopify, the platform Skinmart was eager to use for their eCommerce. Although they have always been interested in Shopify as a platform, it lacked certain technical capabilities that Skinmart needed when they started their business. However, as Shopify evolves alongside the eCommerce industry, they can now deliver exactly what Skinmart requires to thrive.
The initial discussions were a hands-on and exploratory process, as we worked with Skinmart to build a whole new website – one that aligned with their brand vision and growth strategy. It became clear to us early on that there was a lot of room for expansion. Skinmart, as a brand, had great potential; they just needed the perfect platform to help seize every opportunity.
With that said, costs were a concern during initial conversations. To give Skinmart confidence in the process, we broke down their wants and the total costs involved, then narrowed things down to align with their budget. By first prioritising the base requirements and creating a high-functioning website that delivers a return on investment, there was room for further expansion down the line – without blowing out costs early on.
As a promotions-intensive business, the Skinmart team needs to be able to jump in and update the website when needed. We knew transitioning to Shopify Plus would alleviate past frustrations like website crashes, making backend management a seamless process. As a result, the site architecture now delivers an ideal and user-friendly experience for the Skinmart team while also benefiting the online customer experience.
To further enhance the customer journey, we added a custom-built dynamic cart drawer. This means that, throughout their entire shopping experience, customers can add to their cart and continue browsing without interruptions or being directed to another screen. Related offers, including personalised promotions, are displayed during this process, leading to further conversions and happier customers.
Integration with Nosto for a personalised approach
To amplify Skinmart’s customer-first brand vision and make the online experience more empowering, we designed a website that was intuitive to navigate. Dropdown menus showcase Skinmart’s extensive range of products and services without customers needing to click through multiple pages to find what they want.
The AI Skin Advisor, an integral part of their personalisation approach, is highlighted throughout the site, including each dropdown menu. With the Skin Advisor, we wanted to bring the tailored experience of attending an in-person consultation to the online experience. To further enhance personalisation, we also integrated Skinmart’s existing system, Nosto, with the Shopify Plus platform.
By fusing Nosto’s personalisation capabilities with the data Nosto had accumulated on Skinmart’s customer base, the brand was able to immediately start promoting different search results to specific audiences. Using Nosto’s out-of-the-box personalisation, they were able to ensure each user would see different results for the same query based on the likes of their: browsing history; category, brand and skincare affinities; previous purchases; and more.
The Results
For Skinmart, business growth was reasonable while using Magento as an eCommerce platform. However, since transitioning to Shopify Plus, they have experienced impressive growth, with their overall revenue tripling when compared to pre-site-launch – with limited additional investment from a site management perspective.
This growth would not have been possible without Shopify’s rock-solid infrastructure. Website downtime and other system issues can impact customer experience and trust in a brand – complications that the new website implementation has resolved. Skinmart's website, designed to scale infinitely, now delivers customers the uninterrupted and seamless experience they deserve.
Past customer feedback also highlighted several issues with website navigation, which impacted customer satisfaction and overall conversions. Following the launch of the new Shopify Plus website, these issues have disappeared. The extensive and easy-to-use dropdown menu facilitates seamless navigation, providing customers an enhanced experience.
Design was also a strong focus throughout the build, providing Skinmart with further opportunities to stand out in the crowd. The clean and modern look of the website offers a more enjoyable and immersive editorial experience for the customer, one that evokes the feeling of flipping through a beauty magazine. The overall design also stays true to brand values, showcasing a personalised and ‘real’ experience in the imagery and website layout. Every customer has different needs, and the extensive landing page design delivers on meeting those needs.
As a result of all these upgrades, customers are less likely to divert their attention to other brands. In such a competitive marketplace, this can make a world of difference.
With Nosto’s Personalised Search implemented, the Skinmart team can promote and demote products within search results for different users, enabling more relevant product discovery. Skinmart can also easily make changes for specific audiences, such as highlighting discounted products to those who frequently browse such products.
Our partnership has helped give Skinmart more confidence in their digital presence. Their new website, supported by the strength of Shopify Plus as an eCommerce platform, has also given customers more confidence in Skinmart’s brand. The seamless user experience and personalised approach have increased overall revenue and provided Skinmart with an avenue to strengthen the bond with their customers – and deliver on their brand promise.