Clarins
- Quote
- "The decade-long collaboration between Clarins and Merkle has driven continuous innovation and growth. The team's dedication and expertise have been key to our success."
For 70 years, Clarins has been committed to genuine and natural beauty. In this pursuit, their family-owned business goes above and beyond not only to deliver innovative products and beauty routines, but also to ensure a great customer experience across all touchpoints. By prioritizing customer satisfaction, Clarins creates meaningful connections and delivers value that resonates with their loyal clientele.
Clarins needed a long-term partner who aligned with their values of being bold, creative, and human-centered to support their digital and direct-to-consumer acceleration.
-
#1
high-end skincare brand in Europe and one of the leading beauty brands in the world -
#1
best online shop in brand cosmetics & drugstore category in 2023, according to Newsweek (US) -
4.7
rating on Apple Store for the new app (UK) -
30%
of loyal customers adopted the mobile app (UK)
The challenge
Strong customer relationships and sustainable business growth in the beauty industry require next-level experiences. In order to keep accelerating their direct-to-consumer business, Clarins needed to build platforms to foster loyalty and provide genuine value to customers, all while engaging new audiences to reach the next generation of Clarins shoppers.
The approach
Together, Clarins and Merkle embarked on an ambitious digital roadmap to strengthen customer relationships:
- Ongoing development of complex, user-focused commerce features: Merkle provided development, integration services, and 24/7 support for Clarins’s composable ecommerce architecture on Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This architecture enables the brand to scale effectively and bring innovations to market quickly, supporting initiatives like:
- AI Skin Observer, using advanced skin technology in partnership with Perfect Corp to provide highly personalized skincare recommendations to customers.
- Enhanced virtual try-ons, bringing looks from make-up artists to life and allowing customers to see how products look on them before making a purchase.
- A multi-currency website to reach many more markets and allow customers to shop in their preferred currency, recently launched in Eastern Europe.
- A modern mobile app that delivers a premium, convenient experience to loyal customers: Merkle designed an app to support Clarins’s growing subscription business and enhance its direct-to-consumer strategy. Built on their existing ecommerce infrastructure, the hybrid app combined the flexibility of web technology with the performance of native features, such as permanent login, one-click payment, and a product barcode scanner, to deliver cost efficiency alongside a premium user experience.
- Social commerce innovation to reach new audiences: Recognizing the value of social commerce for beauty products, Clarins was one of the first brands to launch on TikTok Shop in the US in 2024. They engaged a new generation of Clarins customers to drive business growth in a channel with heavy commerce activity, including repeat purchases. Merkle built the tech integration to make it happen.
- AI efficiencies to support further innovation: Merkle and Clarins identified high-value use cases for AI, focused on improving internal efficiencies and cost savings aligned with strategic business goals. Merkle established a clear process framework, piloted several initiatives to gain stakeholder buy-in, and demonstrated measurable impact to set a strong AI foundation.
The outcome
Throughout our decade-long partnership, Clarins and Merkle have embraced the “Beauty That Cares” mindset to set new benchmarks in the industry.
We've delivered solutions built on modern technology that are genuinely helpful to shoppers, creating a strong foundation for continued growth: leveraging data and latest technologies, reaching new audiences on new channels, and preparing to capitalize on emerging AI opportunities.
Through boldness and authenticity, Clarins and Merkle will continue to raise the bar and create beautiful experiences for customers.
