Are Beauty Ecommerce Tracking Tools Worth the Investment?

So, are ecommerce tools worth the investment?

In short: yes. Having data for every phase in the shopper journey – both relating to your brand and your competitors – allows you to understand precisely how well your products are performing on the digital shelf. You can track your success, benchmark with other beauty brands, and optimise your customer journey with data; an activity that, mmi data reveals, can uplift revenues by as much as 10%.

The key, of course, is ensuring you have the right ecommerce tools and technology in place to drive impact (as well as having the internal team in place to analyse the data and ensure the required changes are implemented). Here are some of the types of ecommerce tools we recommend for a complete view of the digital landscape…

Amplify sales by creating a captivating customer experience that spans the full path to purchase →

1. Monitor stock levels and product content across etailers

The final step in the shopper journey – the product page – is also the most important. Here, customers learn more about that dew-boosting serum or velvety matte lipstick, and decide if they’re ready to tap ‘add to basket’. With a digital shelf monitoring platform, you can review your SKUs across all of your etailers, ensuring copy appears, the right visuals are displayed, the correct number of reviews are visible, and the item is in stock. An efficient tool will display this information for every etailer on one interface, so you can quickly and easily review your shelf from one store to the next.

2. Get up to 3% of your co-op ad spend back with campaign tracking

Planning your next co-op advertising campaign? With an ad tracking tool, you can make more informed decisions about your ad placement to ensure your brand is enjoying a high share of voice (SOV). The right platform will show you which spaces on each etailer have the highest visibility, how they perform over key consumer periods, and what your competitors have booked in the past. The same tool should also enable you to monitor your campaigns when they go live, so you can ensure they remain compliant with the correct uptime, banners and product links. At mmi, we’ve found that monitoring campaign compliance – and seeking compensation for errors – can help you recover up to 3% of your overall ad spend.

3. Protect your brand equity and value with marketplace monitoring

Unauthorised sellers are an increasing issue in the beauty industry, selling grey market products that skew your P&L figures, while putting your equity at risk with a customer experience you can’t control. However, by getting on top of these sales with a marketplace tracking tool, you can boost your beauty brand’s conversion rates by 3-10% (depending on how much product is available via unauthorised channels). With such a positive return on investment (ROI), and greater protection of your brand’s value, such monitoring platforms are proving crucial as the unauthorised marketplace expands.

4. Review pricing strategies across the entire beauty industry

Whether you’re deciding on the RRP for a new product or reviewing how etailers are pricing your brand, a price monitoring tool will help you to refine future ecommerce strategies. Not only can you gain insight on how much competitors are selling similar products for you, but you can also put sudden sales spikes (or dips) into context with data on discounts and promotions. At a time when inflation is impacting the beauty industry, this becomes all the more pertinent, enabling you to make fact-based decisions about how (and whether) to adjust your existing prices.