www.shuuemura-usa.com /
www.shuuemura.ca
From their Tokyo avant-garde roots and legendary founder, Japanese make-up artist Mr. Shu Uemura, comes a makeup artistry brand like no other. From its professional quality hand-crafted makeup tools to its iconic cleansing oils, Shu Uemura is known for its high performance products, extensive color range and exceptional textures. Mr. Shu Uemura founded the brand in 1983 on the philosophy that “beautiful make-up starts with beautiful skin.” Boasting the latest cosmetic discoveries, Shu Uemura skin care is formulated with rare Asian plant extracts, which are gentle and effective on the skin; working in perfect harmony to naturally improve the skin’s metabolism. Shu Uemura was acquired by the L’Oréal Group in 2004.
Developing the Future of Ecommerce
As part of a push to utilize multichannel sales and service, L’Oréal Canada decided to invest in the Shu Uemura website and implement a Salesforce Commerce Cloud-based webstore. Recognizable by their sleek, modern design, Shu Uemura boutiques strive to provide a quality service based on Japanese hospitality and professional application techniques, with a superior level of service and help given to the customer. In order for customers to comfortably make their purchases online, L’Oréal Canada knew they had to replicate the in-store shopping experience online – no easy feat for a brand with such great emphasis on personal service. After working with OSF Digital to launch their Biotherm brand on Salesforce Commerce Cloud, L’Oréal Canada returned to the global ecommerce solutions provider to deliver the same results for Shu Uemura.
The client needed two sites: one for Canada and one for US, both based on a core architecture developed by OSF while implementing the Biotherm webstore, with multi-language (English and French) capability. In order to address the growing number of customers making purchases from mobile devices, the solution needed a mobile friendly webstore that looked and performed consistently from any device. Along with re-designing the front-end of the webstore, the back-end needed to be completely integrated in order to allow a seamless flow of information between systems.
Getting to Work
OSF began by migrating the existing website onto L’Oréal Canada’s core architecture, which was developed for the Biotherm project. By utilizing a common core architecture for their brands, L’Oréal Canada can quickly and easily implement future brands onto the Commerce Cloud platform without having to re-build each site from the ground up. Salesforce Commerce Cloud offers a powerful, scalable and secure platform, enabling the client to focus on managing content and promotions rather than keeping their site up and running.
While the front-end design was being re-worked, developers from OSF were busy performing extensive back-end integrations to create a streamlined and reliable ecommerce solution. Some of the 3rd party integrations included the BazaarVoice ratings and reviews platform, DOTS address verification software, an integrated SAP order management solution, a Cybersource payment gateway and Google Analytics to track the performance of the new websites. With all of these different systems working in unison, the shopping experience is consistent, streamlined and reliable – a must for any online retailer.
Mobile Optimization
L’Oréal Canada made it clear that enabling and optimizing mobile commerce was a key feature that needed to be included in the solution. To enable seamless mobile access from any device, OSF and L’Oreal Canada determined that responsive design would be the best solution for their needs. This method allows the website to automatically identify the size and resolution of the device’s screen and adjust the content and images accordingly – eliminating the need to build and host separate sites for mobile devices and saving the client considerable resources.
Shu Gets Personal
Additionally, the client wanted to include something their competitors couldn’t provide online – a personalized, individual shopping experience where the customer can design their own unique product. OSF worked with the client to build a custom application to reside in the webstore that enables customers to build their own custom makeup palettes to match their favorite tones and colors.
The entire solution was delivered in just four months, and now enables Shu Uemura and L’Oréal Canada to keep up with the growing number of customers shopping online, especially from mobile devices. Since launching the new solution, the Shu Uemura’s ecommerce conversion rates for mobile devices has increased by nearly 50%, while overall traffic and visit rates have increased significantly as well.
