Global beauty retailer gets to know its customers with Google Cloud

Beauty is skin deep, but Charlotte Tilbury is diving far below the surface of its customer data.

Founded by U.K. makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury, the vertical beauty retailer is deploying the Google Cloud Looker business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform to accelerate its omnichannel growth and further support customer-centricity. 

Available in more than 60 countries via an e-commerce site as well as its own stores and third-party retail partners, Charlotte Tilbury sought to advance its data analytics processes while scaling up its e-commerce platform to meet growing customer needs across channels. The company selected Looker to deliver a unified approach to analytics and reporting that would enable access to real-time, critical data insights across the business, from e-commerce to supply chain and finance. 

All areas of the company utilize Looker, helping Charlotte Tilbury build a deeper understanding of customer behavior. As a result, the retailer obtains more informed decision-making and can guide its online strategy to better serve customer demands. The Looker platform also provides real-time information.

While Charlotte Tilbury focused its initial Looker deployment on e-commerce, all parts of the organization are now using the solution. This includes its physical retail teams, bolstering Charlotte Tilbury's omnichannel integration. Multi-departmental sharing of insights also helps the retailer improve efficiencies throughout its supply chain, assisting with stock-shortage notifications and order volume fluctuations across different geographies. 

"It's an incredibly challenging time for retailers around the world,” said Dr. Andreas Gertsch Grover, director of data at Charlotte Tilbury. “Now, more than ever, we need to focus, adjust, and invest in technology that will help us navigate the current climate by creating consistently excellent customer experiences across all channels. With the recent spike in online demand, the powerful combination of Looker and Google BigQuery has been critical in enabling us to easily adapt. We now have faster access to reliable, real-time insights that provide informed decision-making, and build trust at this uncertain time.”

Charlotte Tilbury Beauty operates 11 standalone stores in London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait, a global e-commerce site, and sells products in over 550 points of distribution worldwide including department stores and travel retailers.