Success Stories
M·A·C (Make-up Art Cosmetics), a leading
brand of professional cosmetics, was created in Toronto, Canada in 1984 and is part of The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc.
The company’s popularity has grown through a tradition of
word-of-mouth endorsement from makeup artists, models, photographers and
journalists around the world.
Founded in: 1984
Numbers of stores: 500 independent stores
Operates in: 130 countries around the world
Number of employees: 12,130
Turning anonymous website visitors into subscribed customers is a challenge most brands face. With the lack of an incentive, new customers often drop off without completing the first purchase. MAC Cosmetics wanted an interactive means to get their first-time website visitors to complete the purchase while also improving the lead collection on their website.
After going over various options with the Insider, MAC Cosmetics decided to implement the wheel of fortune gamification to engage and incentivize their website visitors. This offers users a chance to spin the wheel to get a coupon code in exchange for their email address.
The discount coupon gave the customers an incentive to complete their first purchase. The wheel of fortune helps convert anonymous website visitors into leads that marketers can nurture into customers in the long run. This proved to be a win-win situation for both MAC Cosmetics and its customersThis led to an improved conversion rate of 4.43%, along with a clickthrough rate of 64.95%. They also generated a massive 53,000 leads within just two days of implementing this solution.
MAC Cosmetics wanted a newer, more exciting way of promoting a limited time offer. They wanted to try something they hadn’t done before, which would encourage customer interactions and improve their likelihood to purchase.
The onsite experimentation product, Memory Game, was chosen for this campaign by MAC’s team, upon Insider’s recommendation. This is a simple game to give a fun little experience on their website which will increase the user’s involvement with the brand.
As a result, MAC Cosmetics achieved a conversion rate of 4.78% and a clickthrough rate of 29.28%.
Competition is intense in the cosmetics industry and to stay ahead of the crowd, MAC realized that they needed to show their customers personalized product recommendations to improve its conversion rate and Average Order Value (AOV). MAC was looking for a platform that would enable them to proactively promote complementary products to buyers (cross-selling) across their web and mobile web channels to nudge them on their path to purchase.
Using Insider’s AI-powered Smart Recommender, MAC was able to show its customers relevant product recommendations in real-time. On the product and cart pages, MAC showed the products that were often viewed or purchased together to nurture an interest to buy additional products with the validation of the purchase behavior of other customers.
The company also showed the top sellers to highlight the products that were most trending in the market. By showing products that other customers were also purchasing, MAC was able to nudge a wide range of customers to purchase more.
The AI-powered smart recommendations helped MAC achieve an add-to-cart rate of 20.56% and a conversion rate of 2.3%.
Today’s mobile using customers have a very short attention span and hence managing to keep them engaged proves to be a challenge for brands. MAC wanted to capture the mind share of their customers by offering delightful experiences to showcase its products.
MAC Cosmetics began using Insider’s InStory to create Instagram-like stories to deliver immersive experiences on the mobile web, thus providing a rich visual experience.
Using the InStory dashboard, the brand was able to showcase its best selling products, trending products, festival and seasonal offers, and a lot more on its mobile website. MAC was thus able to keep its customers engaged on the mobile web for a longer time.
MAC saw a 11.3% conversion rate uplift for Singles Day Instory. They were able to generate 7.28% Average Order Value (AOV) uplift and 29% clickthrough rate when it was live on Singles Day
MAC Cosmetics had its fair share of cart abandonment on the website, and wanted a solution to follow-up with those users to retrieve their carts and drive purchases.
Insider’s Architect, the AI-backed customer journey builder was the chosen solution to improve engagement across channels. Reengaging customers who dropped off without purchasing after showing interest in products is essential to drive up revenues. By consolidating data from user behavior across different channels using the Unified Customer Database, MAC was able to create unique customer journeys for each customer for maximum impact and efficiency. This allowed MAC to re-engage with potential cart abandoners and get them to shop by showing personalized product recommendations.
By engaging across both the desktop web and mobile web, MAC was able to establish multiple channels of communication to continue engaging their customers. MAC also set up web push notifications that could target customers even when they weren’t on the website. Building a cross-channel journey helped them target their customers with the right message at the right time on the right touchpoint. Architect resulted in a colossal 14.45% clickthrough rate and a conversion rate of 16.69% across channels.
MAC Cosmetics, enthused by the gamification
options used so far, are looking at experimenting with
even more gamifications as and when they are
available. They also intend to orchestrate more complex
customer journeys across channels, using deep
segmentation to aid hyper-personalization at all points.
Having built a sizable 111 personalizations across
touchpoints so far, MAC intends to step up and continue
building more personalizations to continue engaging
with customers across various channels.
"Since its inception, MAC stands for unrivalled expertise in makeup and its popularity has grown through a tradition of word-of-mouth endorsements from makeup artists, models, photographers, and journalists around the world. At MAC, we are constantly looking to innovate with new trends and features to make a consumer's shopping journey memorable! Through Insider we have been able to further strengthen gamification and through the exciting ideas deployed on our website, we aim to be seen as a forward looking brand with a long-term desirability to purchase.”
Karen Thompson
Brand Head
