Beiersdorf turns its focus to accelerating eCommerce sales

Brandbank helps retailers and brand owners aggregate and distribute their product packaging images and information, and the Nivea skin care maker will utilise its help, initially in the UK, to increase eCommerce sales, which already account for eight per cent of total sales.

Sean Wilkins, International Development director of Brandbank says, “Every major cosmetics company in Europe is hurrying to address the reality of the multichannel consumer – the consumer who likes to shop both in store and online, depending on whichever channel happens to be more convenient.”​

Wilkins told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com that this has seen an emerging trend develop in Europe for retailers to look to outsource their digital content to a third party. By outsourcing to a low-cost service, retailers can avoid a number of headaches and deliver a more efficient and streamlined experience.

Quick, easy and convenient​

Jennie Hylton, Beiersdorf’s Digital Sales manager explains, “We are working with Brandbank to make it quick, easy and convenient to distribute our latest brand imagery and information to our retailers as well as within the business. It’s a powerful route to ensure we are sharing the best possible information about our products with our consumers.”​

The company says it chose Brandbank as part of a strategic commitment to develop and deliver best representation on eCommerce sites, a strategy it outlined earlier in the year.

“Brandbank delivers some very tangible benefits to us – for example, minimising the risk of losing eCommerce sales through inaccurate or incomplete brand imagery or information,”​ Hylton continues.

Brandbank will be tasked with ensuring Beiersdorf’s product portfolio is fully up to date on eCommerce sites, streamlining information sharing both internally and externally, and ensuring the eCommerce experience is as close as possible to in-store shopping through the use of detailed imagery, back of pack information and additional content designed to engage consumers.

Avoid the mess​

“If cosmetics companies try to manage the process of collecting product images and information themselves in-house, the results are often messy, fragmented, time-consuming and expensive,”​ explains Brandbank’s Wilkins.

“The pain for manufacturers becomes acute as this poor process results in project delays, inaccuracies and ultimately a less than optimum consumer experience online,”​ he continues.

Rob Tarrant, Brandbank’s CEO believes this is just the first step for many into the eCommerce world, as online sales become a growing part of a business’ revenue.

“Beiersdorf is solving a challenge facing many companies that struggle to deal with requests for often fragmented product imagery and information. Beiersdorf is a best-practice model of how to make the process faster, more efficient and more cost-effective,”​ he comments.