UK cosmetics brand Charlotte Tilbury has harnessed the power of e-commerce data to identify lucrative new markets and justify international expansion. This move profits from the potential offered to beauty brands through e-commerce ‘big’ data, and marks a new, powerful element in consumer marketing.
Big data is huge,” says Barbara Brockman, president of UK body the Society of Cosmetic Scientists. Brands have got to listen to the consumer; but we’ve never had the ears until now.”
The celebrated make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury launched her cosmetics brand in September 2013, and is using data taken from e-commerce sales to identify the level of demand currently existing in the US for its products. The brand is using this intelligence to justify brand expansion across the Atlantic.
The brand notes it used an e-commerce platform called ‘Ometria’ to capture this consumer data.
Although we had always planned to expand into other markets, Ometria demonstrated just how much demand there was for the brand overseas, specifically the US - our keenest audience,” says head of Charlotte Tilbury’s e-commerce Rachel Jones. The data revealed there was a business case for immediate expansion.”
From the data analysis conducted, the brand intends to retail within Bergdorf Goodman, Nortstrom and net-a-porter.com in the US later this year.
