The InsightOut Map – Digital competitiveness of Cosmetics e-commerce players

MAP-RO-CS-2021

The InsightOut Map

Cosmetics players in Romanian e-commerce
(MAP-RO-CS-2021)

The Cosmetics category is one of the highest growing Romanian e-commerce categories, featuring a very strong
leader (Notino), three innovators (Oriflame, Douglas, and Parfimo), one conservative (MAKEUP) and two notable
challengers (Sephora and Esteto). The InsightOut Map looks at the top players in the category, evaluating their
Digital Presence and Digital Maturity. The report is based on InsightOut Analytics’ methodology considering 7
dimensions and 15 subdimensions, computed by measuring more than 37 features of each player.

Fig. 1 – InsightOut Map – Cosmetics (MAP-RO-CS-2021)

This rest of this report covers a detailed scorecard for all players, complete player profiles, and the used
methodology with details about measured dimensions and sub-dimensions.

© InsightOut Analytics 2021. Unauthorized copying and distribution prohibited. Not to be licensed commercially.
The InsightOut Map – Digital competitiveness of Cosmetics e-commerce players
MAP-RO-CS-2021

InsightOut Map Scorecard – Cosmetics

MAKEUP

Oriflame
Sephora

Douglas

Parfimo
Notino

Esteto
Weight
Digital Presence 4.75 3.75 2.25 1.75 1.50 1.00 1.00
Website Visitor Traffic 70% 5.00 4.75 .225 1.00 1.75 1.00 1.00
Native App Downloads 20% 5.00 1.00 1.00 3.00 1.25 1.00 1.00
Social Media Presence 10% 1.50 1.75 5.00 5.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

Digital Maturity 3.75 2.75 2.75 3.25 3.25 3.50 2.75

Advertising and Nurturing 20% 4.75 2.50 4.00 2.75 4.00 4.00 3.00
Performance Marketing 50% 5.00 3.25 3.50 1.00 3.50 3.50 2.75
E-Mail Marketing 50% 4.25 1.75 4.25 4.25 4.50 4.25 3.00
Visitor Engagement 30% 3.25 1.50 2.25 4.75 2.00 2.25 1.25
Visit Duration 40% 3.00 2.50 2.50 5.00 1.75 1.00 1.25
Pages per Visit 40% 2.50 1.00 1.75 5.00 1.25 3.50 1.00
Bounce Rate 10% 4.25 1.00 3.50 5.00 3.25 2.75 2.25
Native App Rating 10% 5.00 1.00 1.00 3.50 4.00 1.00 1.00
Customer Experience & Customization 40% 3.25 3.75 2.50 3.00 3.75 4.00 3.00
Recommendations Quality 25% 3.50 4.75 3.50 4.25 3.75 3.50 2.25
Search Quality 25% 4.00 2.50 1.00 2.75 3.50 3.00 3.50
Breadcrumbs and Backlinks 10% 3.00 5.00 3.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 3.00
Ease of Sign-up 20% 3.75 3.25 3.50 1.00 2.50 5.00 3.00
Ease of Purchase 20% 1.75 4.00 2.25 3.00 4.25 3.75 3.25
Page Load Times 10% 4.50 3.75 1.75 1.25 2.75 4.00 5.00
First Contentful Paint 50% 4.25 3.25 1.00 1.50 3.25 4.50 5.00
Largest Contentful Paint 50% 4.75 4.25 2.50 1.00 2.25 3.50 5.00

© InsightOut Analytics 2021. Unauthorized copying and distribution prohibited. Not to be licensed commercially.
The InsightOut Map – Digital competitiveness of Cosmetics e-commerce players
MAP-RO-CS-2021

Category insights
The Cosmetics category is the smallest category in this year’s report, with 30% lower traffic than the closest one,
the Home category. However, the Cosmetics category is experiencing high growth and is one of the most active
categories in terms of Social Media engagement. It is also worth noting that some of the players (like Sephora
and Douglas) also have a physical presence in the market. In terms of Digital Maturity, the category is
characterized by very strong Advertising and Nurturing (in terms of both E-Mail Marketing and Performance
Marketing) and high-quality product recommendations on the players’ digital channels. The Cosmetics category
has one strong leader – Notino, with higher Digital Presence and Digital Maturity than all other players in the
category. The category also features one Conservative (MAKEUP), three Innovators (Oriflame, Douglas and
Parfimo), and two Challengers (Sephora and Esteto). For this category, 18 players have been taken into
consideration (the list can be found in the methodology part of the report).

Player Profiles

Leaders

Notino

Notino is the only Leader on the InsightOut Map and has the highest digital maturity, mostly driven by the number
of website visitors (2.1x more than the next player, MAKEUP) and the popular native application for both iOS
and Android. In terms of Digital Maturity, Notino has the highest score in the category, with high performing
Advertising and Nurturing (strongest Performance Marketing Score, suggesting large and well-managed Ads
budgets, and very strong E-Mail Marketing). Moreover, Notino features the highest Quality of Search (dealing
well with misspellings as well as word variations and featuring limited but effective semantic awareness). On the
other hand, the dimensions with a negative impact on Notino’s Digital Maturity score are the Quality of
Recommendations (being one of only two players in the category with no recommendations at the shopping cart
level) and the lower Ease of Purchase score (with Notino featuring the most fields to complete a purchase in the
category).

© InsightOut Analytics 2021. Unauthorized copying and distribution prohibited. Not to be licensed commercially.
The InsightOut Map – Digital competitiveness of Cosmetics e-commerce players
MAP-RO-CS-2021

Innovators

Oriflame

Oriflame is placed in the Innovators quadrant, featuring a limited Digital Presence in the Romanian market, despite
its regional character. However, Oriflame’s significant Social Media presence and popular Android application help
boost the player’s Digital Presence score. In terms of Digital Maturity, Oriflame has a very strong E-Mail Marketing
performance maintaining customer loyalty and the best-in-category Visitor Engagement (driven by long and
meaningful interactions with its digital channels). Moreover, Oriflame has the second-highest Quality of
Recommendations, with highly relevant and well-placed recommendations of both complementary and alternative
products. On the other hand, Oriflame lags other players in terms of Performance Marketing (driving negligible
traffic from this source), Page Speed (loading up to 300% slower than the best-in-class, Esteto), and Ease of
Sign-up (offering no social login and requiring many fields to be filled in by users).

Douglas

Douglas is an Innovator in the InsightOut Map, with limited Digital Presence despite its significant physical
presence in the market. Moreover, Douglas is the least active players in terms of Social Media Presence, and
operates a moderately popular native Android Application. In terms of Digital Maturity however, Douglas is a
strong player, boasting the strongest E-Mail Marketing performance and the highest Ease of Purchase (due to
few fields to buy, and the option to complete a purchase without an account) in the category. On the other hand,
Douglas has a low Ease of Sign-up (suggesting that some of the fields needed for the purchase are part of the
sign-up process), which prevents significant synergies with the aforementioned strong E-Mail Marketing. Douglas
also lags in terms of Visitor Engagement (due to short interactions) and has one of the slower Page Load Times
(up to 25% slower than category average).

Parfimo

Parfimo is an Innovator on the InsightOut Map, given its high Digital Maturity and relatively low Digital Presence
(lowest one, along with Esteto). The Digital Presence of Parfimo is mostly driven by the website (with 48% fewer
visitors than the category average) and Social Media presence. In terms of Digital Maturity, Parfimo proves to be
a strong player, featuring the highest Ease of Sign-up (where Parfimo is the only player in the category to offer
full social login functionality), a high Ease of Purchase (50% fewer fields to complete than the category average),
and strong E-Mail Marketing. Moreover, Parfimo’s web page is loading 10% faster than the category average,
improving the Page Load Time score. At the same time, Parfimo’s Customer Experience and Customization score
is negatively impacted by the low Quality of Search (which handles word variations well, but has little semantic

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The InsightOut Map – Digital competitiveness of Cosmetics e-commerce players
MAP-RO-CS-2021

awareness and struggles with typos), and the low Quality of Recommendations (as not all products have
recommendations, and recommendations are heavily brand-related).

Conservatives

MAKEUP

MAKEUP is the only Conservative on the InsightOut Map, given its significant Digital Presence and slightly below-
average Digital Maturity. In terms of Digital Presence, MAKEUP has one of the most popular websites (makeup.ro
driving up to 30% more traffic than the category average), and a well-rounded Social Media presence. Regarding
the Digital Maturity dimensions, MAKEUP is among the category leaders in terms of Ease of Purchase (with the
fewest steps to buy as well as the option to complete purchases without an account). Moreover, the Quality of
Recommendations is best-in-category, not only placing both complements and substitutes, but also being the
only player meaningfully placing recommendations at homepage/category level. While the Quality of
Recommendations is positively affecting the Customer Experience and Customization, the Quality of Search takes
a heavy toll on the same (with one of the lowest semantic awareness features and struggling with both typos
and word variations). MAKEUP’s Digital Maturity is also negatively influenced by the lowest-in-category Advertising
and Nurturing (mostly due to E-Mail Marketing).

Challengers

Sephora

Sephora is a Challenger on the InsightOut Map. While Sephora’s physical presence is substantial, its Digital
Presence is mostly driven by the Social Media engagement, while the Website Visitor Traffic is 20% below the
category average. In terms of Digital Maturity, Sephora is characterized by strong E-Mail Marketing (which might
be linked to its strong in-store loyalty program), has one of the lowest Bounce Rates (suggesting strong brand
recognition) and a good Ease of Sign-up (with two fields less to be completed by users than the category
average). However, Sephora’s Digital Maturity score is significantly decreased by its lowest-in-category Customer
Experience and Customization. The most important detractors are the Quality of Search (with no ability to handle
any typos and word variations whatsoever, and no semantic awareness) and the Quality of Recommendations
(with all recommendations being in-brand, and no complements placed on product detail pages). Lastly,
Sephora’s Page Load Time is among the lower in the category, with pages loading up to 30% slower than the
category average.

© InsightOut Analytics 2021. Unauthorized copying and distribution prohibited. Not to be licensed commercially.
The InsightOut Map – Digital competitiveness of Cosmetics e-commerce players
MAP-RO-CS-2021

Esteto

Esteto is positioned in the Challengers quadrant on the InsightOut Map. Esteto’s Digital Presence, which is mostly
driven by the Website Visitor Traffic and Social Media Presence, is the lowest in the category (and on par with
Parfimo). At the same time, in terms of Digital Maturity, the Quality of Search is high (given the very good ability
to deal with typos and word variations). Moreover, Esteto has the fastest page loading times, being up to 45%
faster than the category average. The Ease of Purchase is also a net contributor to the player’s Digital Maturity,
as Esteto provides an on-par process length but also offers users the option to purchase without registering for
an account. However, the Digital Maturity Score is negatively impacted by the lowest-in-category Quality of
Recommendations (with lower relevance and no placement on the shopping cart nor on the home/category
page) and the low Visitor Engagement (driven by short interactions with few pages). Lastly, Esteto is one of the
few players not offering backlinks on the webpage.

© InsightOut Analytics 2021. Unauthorized copying and distribution prohibited. Not to be licensed commercially.
The InsightOut Map – Digital competitiveness of Cosmetics e-commerce players
MAP-RO-CS-2021

Methodology
To assess Digital Presence and Digital Maturity, InsightOut Analytics’ proprietary methodology considers 7
dimensions and 15 subdimensions, computed by measuring more than 37 features of each player. InsightOut
Analytics builds its dataset from public data only and does not use any internal data from the players in the report.
All data was collected in March and April 2021. All score evaluations are made intra-category.

Player selection

The InsightOut Map focuses on the largest players in the selected category (judged by Digital Presence) and
does not aim to be an exhaustive comparison of all players. Moreover, the report considers one player each entity
that has a stand-alone digital presence, regardless of ownership structure. Players are categorized based on their
main category, although some players offer products in multiple categories.

The following players have been considered for this report: 1001cosmetice.ro, Avon, Cupio, Douglas, Esteto,
Farmec, MAKEUP, Marionnaud, Notino, Oriflame, Parfimo, pensulemachiaj.ro, PinkPanda.ro, Sephora,
theMakeupShop, Vivantis, Xpert Beauty, Yves Rocher.

Digital Presence

Digital Presence assesses the prevalence of a player’s digital channels in the market. The digital channels
considered are websites, native mobile applications (both Android and iOS) and social media (Facebook only).
For each channel’s score, the number of users is estimated.

Digital Maturity

Digital Maturity is driven by Advertising and Nurturing, Visitor Engagement, Customer Experience & Customization
and Page Load Times.

Advertising and Nurturing

Advertising and Nurturing consists of two subdimensions: Performance Marketing and E-Mail Marketing.
Performance Marketing is computed based on the player’s ability to drive traffic to its digital channels through
paid search and display advertising. E-Mail Marketing is computed based on the user’s ease of newsletter
subscription and the player’s ability to drive traffic to its digital channels through e-mail newsletters.

© InsightOut Analytics 2021. Unauthorized copying and distribution prohibited. Not to be licensed commercially.
The InsightOut Map – Digital competitiveness of Cosmetics e-commerce players
MAP-RO-CS-2021

Visitor Engagement

Visitor Engagement is scored by estimating the website visitor engagement based on Bounce Rates, Time per
Visit and Average Number of Pages Viewed per session. Moreover, the App Rating is considered based on
the average rating of the Android and iOS apps of the players.

Customer Experience & Customization

The Customer Experience & Customization is the most complex dimension, covering 5 sub-dimensions as follows.
The Recommendations Quality is scored based on the completeness and complexity of personalized
recommendations offered on detail pages, check-out pages and home pages. The Quality of Search is driven
by the ability to handle word variations (e.g., plural vs singular), the semantic awareness (e.g., synonyms and
attributes not listed in the product title or description), and the ability to deal with common typos. The
Breadcrumbs and Backlinks subdimension evaluates the existence of such features on the player’s website.
The Ease of Sign-up is computed by evaluating the ease of buyer registration (existence of social logins, number
of fields and steps). The Ease of Purchase is computed by evaluating the number of steps and fields necessary
for users to complete a purchase, as well as the option to purchase without registering a user, and the number
of payment options offered.

Page Load Times

The Page Load Times considers the time for the website to load on both mobile and desktop. This dimension is
driven by sub-dimensions both within the Core Web Vitals and other web vitals, which shall decisively impact the
website’s ranking on Google Search after Google’s ranking algorithm’s change scheduled for June 2021. It is
driven by the First Contentful Paint (i.e., the time from when the page starts loading up until any meaningful
content has been rendered on screen), and the Largest Contentful Paint (i.e., the time from when the page
starts loading up until the largest text or image component has been fully rendered on screen).

© InsightOut Analytics 2021. Unauthorized copying and distribution prohibited. Not to be licensed commercially.
The InsightOut Map – Digital competitiveness of Cosmetics e-commerce players
MAP-RO-CS-2021

About InsightOut Analytics

InsightOut Analytics is a Data Science, Machine Learning & AI company focusing on the Internet, Media, and E-
Commerce verticals. InsightOut Analytics develops and implements complete business solutions which enable
clients gain significant competitive advantages. Our offering includes Recommendation Engines, Site Search
Engines, Churn Prediction, Inventory Optimization, Promotion and Ads Optimization as well as Data Warehousing
and Data Integration solutions. InsightOut Analytics is a brand of Machine Learning Solutions SRL, having its
headquarters in Timisoara, RO and offices in Osnabrück, DE and Bucharest, RO.

CONTACT INFORMATION

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office@insightout-analytics.com or find us at insightout-analytics.com.

© InsightOut Analytics 2021. Unauthorized copying and distribution prohibited. Not to be licensed commercially.