The cosmetics company will use the new site to more carefully control its brand messaging. “We have lots of vocal interaction on Instagram and Facebook, which is great, but it’s happening off site,” says John Perasco, assistant vice president of digital at Urban Decay, in a media release.
“We’re trying to bring some of that back to our site so we can consolidate and curate some of the excitement,” he explains.
To do this Urban Decay has enlisted the services of the content management solutions firm e-Spirit, according to the media release. That firm is supplying the CMS behind the beauty brand’s new site.
Going live
The company site will not only ensure brand uniformity across markets as Urban Decay expands beyond the US into Europe, Asia, and Middle East. It will also be a bridge between content and e-commerce.
“Managing that from Newport Beach, the mothership if you will, is critical. A big part of the value that FirstSpirit [content management system] brings is being able to manage across countries in a way that is flexible and easy, but also has a good measure of control,” affirms Perasco.
Not shopping
Content development will be the brand’s main focus for the near term. “We have the commerce side and that’s going strong. Now we’re building out the content side and making a visually relevant, beautiful, and interesting Urban Decay-branded portion of our site,” says Perasco.
The site will blend all sorts of content to keep the “best beauty junkies” up to date on current trends. Perasco believes that Urban Decay consumers “are looking for all kinds of content whether it’s editorial content, videos, product information or other users’ content.”
Retailing today
Omnichannel retail is increasingly prevalent because there is no one right way to reach consumers, no single channel that will suffice.
Urban Decay, with its new UD All Access site, will own the narrative and shape the conversation. The company is betting that consumers want the authority of a strong brand voice.
Other beauty retailers are keen to entrust influencers and the public with a bit of their brand’s identity and capitalize on spontaneous recommendations and social posts by selling product to consumers wherever they are.
Contextual commerce makes social platforms shoppable. It describes “shopping that can be completed in digital channels outside of merchants’ online shopping site, for example, via social media,” Katie Ochieano, SBM Merchant Marketing with PayPal recently told Cosmetics Design.
“It aims to help connect merchants and consumers in both physical and digital spaces, presenting purchase options at the very moment of discovery,” she added. Contextual Commerce is just now getting a foothold. But before long PayPal will enable “merchants…to activate a ‘buy-now button’ directly in these experiences, and consumers will be able to make purchases with just a few clicks.”