Celebrating 60 years since its inception in 1964 as a single-store operation, Sally Beauty has grown into a powerhouse with 2,400 stores nationwide, establishing itself as a leading online retailer in the health and beauty industry. Setting them apart from competitors is their extensive range of own-brand products, including Ion, bondbar, and Strawberry Leopard, positioning Sally Beauty as both a retailer and a brand, an indispensable player in the industry.

With ambitions to become the ultimate one-stop-shop both online and in-store, Sally Beauty is well on its way to achieving its goal of providing customers with a comprehensive and unparalleled shopping experience.

Alvin Hill, a senior e-commerce executive appointed as Sally Beauty’s e-commerce Group Vice President, E-commerce & Digital over 2 and a half years ago, faced a pressing challenge: “How do I grow the e-commerce business?” Recognizing the need for digital transformation, Alvin observed, “Innovation will take time, which in itself is an additional job.” Under Alvin’s leadership, Sally Beauty identified three critical challenges: increasing traffic, boosting conversion rates, and expanding market share.

The problem of increasing traffic

Addressing traffic challenges, Alvin noted the struggle with SEO optimization, stating, “One of the biggest challenges is SEO, we are trying to get a larger share of SEO but we don’t know where to prioritize our efforts.”

Conversion rates trending downwards

The concern over conversion rates prompted questions about the effectiveness of product pages and the customer journey, with Alvin highlighting, “Our conversion rate is trending downwards, we have only had measured success but we lack visibility on the changes that will have the most impact.”

The market share problem

Finally, the mission to enhance market share raised strategic questions about attracting customers away from competitors, with Alvin questioning, “How do we get them to purchase from Sally instead?” These challenges highlighted a significant blind spot for Sally Beauty, underscoring the need for a targeted solution to drive growth and overcome e-commerce obstacles.

Key platform offerings for Sally Beauty

• Provides Sally Beauty with visibility into competitors’ paid advertising spend and return on investment. Armed with this knowledge, Sally Beauty develop clear next steps to optimize their own advertising spend, ensuring efficiency, and competitiveness in the market.
• To understand promotional campaigns and product launches that are generating revenue for competitors, giving them a head start on how to react and take back their market share.
• To effectively compare their sales performance in health and beauty against retail giants Amazon and Walmart, enabling them to prioritize subcategories where their market share needs improvement.

Grips Intelligence provided Alvin and the Sally Beauty team with a comprehensive 360-degree perspective on their competitors’ e-commerce sales performance, complemented by insights into industry trends, enabling a deeper understanding of macroeconomic shifts.

The E-commerce Intelligence platform shows how Sally Beauty compares to its competitors and pinpoints where they should prioritize their effort.

“Grips proved to be a game-changer for us.”

Head to Head comparison module within the Grips platform.

Using Grips has helped Alvin encourage digital adoption within Sally Beauty: “Our onboarding experience with the platform was smooth sailing, and the insights provided by the team have been consistently valuable. We’ve seamlessly extended access to additional team members, ensuring ongoing insight availability for all.”

20% paid search revenue

Grips has enabled Sally Beauty to optimize their performance marketing efforts effectively. By understanding their competitors’ marketing spend, Sally Beauty has achieved a significant 10% reduction in paid search spend while simultaneously increasing paid search revenue by an impressive 20%.

Complete product visibility

Furthermore, the team has been able to use Grips to pinpoint the specific products and categories where they can improve conversion rates by comparing performance against their competitors. They now have complete visibility of the sales drivers for their competitors allowing them to adopt successful strategies and avoid potential issues.

“Grips provides invaluable insights into our competitive landscape, empowering us to not only measure our performance but also take immediate action based on real-time data. Grips is a must have for any e-commerce brand or retailer looking to stay ahead in today’s dynamic market.”