Estee Lauder’s Website needed a makeover. Their online presence was not leveraging the luxury and the style of the offline brand. Their ecommerce site showcased their products in catalog-style instead of romancing their presentation and creating more cross-sell/up-sell opportunities. And the strong, striking editorial voice of the brand was not apparent on their site.
Stunning New Insights
One of the brand’s hallmarks is its in-store Beauty Advisor. Beauty product catalogs are daunting in their offerings, their range of colors and formulations; many women purchase department store brands because of the level of personal service, and the knowledge that the products they walk away with will match their skin’s needs.
We visited in-store Advisors ourselves, tried on makeup and moisturizers, called the 1-800 number, and followed the purchase path online. We learned first-hand how direct contact with an advisor gave women more confidence in their purchases, and added a demonstrative and educational element that was missing from the site.
Based on these insights as well as brand and consumer behavior research, we set out to design a beautiful, elegant and satisfying experience that elevated the Estee Lauder brand online, engaged with the consumers on an emotional level, and incorporated educational elements and digital tools to promote brand education and purchase consideration.
Looking Good
A beauty site must not only answer consumer needs, it must reflect the style and luxury of the brand. Translating Estee online meant creating a showcase of modern sophistication and heightened elegance. Our starting point: the brand mark. We looked to contemporize it, ensure that it stood out online and best represented the standards of Estee Lauder. The reflective gold treatment we developed was enthusiastically received and greatly informed the whole of the site redesign.
Enhancing Tools
We went about extending the signature Estee touch online by enhancing existing interactive tools and recommending new ones. Inspired by our own interactions with real life Beauty Advisors, we proposed the creation of instructional videos for seasonal makeup application and tips, to give women the kind of education they could only have found in store. We enriched the tools that allowed customers to find their perfect makeup (Foundation Finder) and created a cross-selling skin care program configurator (Skin Care Finder). We also designed a Behind the Scenes look at the famous faces that have become synonymous with Estee Lauder’s standard of beauty and style.
An Exceptional User Experience
We took into consideration how a woman shops for cosmetics and created two user paths. First, an experiential path that provided a curated journey through the site with an emphasis on the emotional connection with the consumer. Secondly, a direct to product path for those women who were looking for a specific formula and were ready to purchase, providing an efficient engagement with emphasis on cross-sell and up-sell.