PhiAcademy: A makeover for the permanent makeup webshop
The relaunch of its web store has enabled PhiAcademy, the leading B2B retailer in the beauty sector, to grow its revenue by 132 %. This was made possible by a PaaS-based implementation on Plattform.sh and the migration to Shopware 6. Learn more about the first Shopware project of this kind.
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The project at a glance
Around 100,000 orders are shipped to over 160 countries per year: to meet this enormous international demand PhiAcademy's needed a new solution for its online store.
The scenario
Meeting the challenge of international growth
PhiAcademy GmbH was founded as a startup in Vienna in 2015 and has since been selling beauty products in over 160 countries. These include for example, eyelashes, as well as color pigments for permanent eyebrow and lip makeup. In the meantime, PhiAcademy is the market leader in B2B trade with beauty products and ships its orders worldwide in over 100,000 packages per year. With the strong growth in international demand in recent years, the company's requirements for its online store have also changed. The previously used Magento 2 system could no longer meet these requirements. That is why PhiAcademy decided to put its online store on a new footing with the support of the e-commerce experts from Vanilla Reply.
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The solution
International, fast, and mobile available
The new online store of PhiAcademy meets the new requirements of the company and is especially characterized by the following features:
Live price inquiry for worldwide express delivery
To provide customers with a fast service, PhiShop sends orders by DHL express delivery on request. In this way, the products reach the customer worldwide after just two days. However, as this shipping option is associated with high costs, Vanilla Reply has integrated a live price query in the new PhiAcademy online store, which can already quantify the costs in the check-out. This can also be used to determine the price for a DHL Economy shipment.
Product prices in different currencies
PhiAcademy's increasingly international clientele also required the online store to be more broadly positioned. Now it is not only available in five languages but it also displays prices in six different currencies. However, the primary currency for completing orders remains euro. The price information in an additional currency is only shown as an orientation for customers and must has no influence on the data flow of the order.
Mobile-first approach
Another requirement for the new webshop for PhiAcademy was optimization for mobile devices. After all, around 86 percent of customers access the online store via smartphone or tablet. Therefore, a mobile-first approach was used, which enabled the design of a user-friendly and engaging user experience and the development of a mobile app.
How we did it
User-friendly and flexible thanks to Shopware 6
PhiAcademy's new online store uses Shopware 6 and is the first Shopware project to be implemented as a PaaS (Platform as a Service) on Platform.sh. This approach gave the experts more flexibility and accelerated development.
In addition to the migrated data and the essential features from Magento 2, the new PhiAcademy store is based on numerous new functions and elements: For example, the Banibis ERP system now makes it possible to not only show item data, assets, inventory and orders, but also prices. These can be given out in different currencies depending on the sales channel for the customers. A specially developed plugin also provides a live price query for shipping orders.
Thanks to the API-first approach used, processes can also be easily automated and supplemented in the future. A clear plus in terms of flexibility and future viability. SEO and mobile optimization complete the concept.In addition, the new store impresses with a lightweight frontend, appealing design elements, and new reseller and affiliate marketing options.
The benefit
A success all along the line
After only four months of development, PhiAcademy now benefits from a new online store that can also be used via app. This is well accepted by the customers:
-11%
bounce rate
+25%
session duration
+6,5%
transactions
+26%
conversion rate
+132 %
revenue
PhiAcademy was founded as a startup in 2015 and has since been selling beauty products in over 160 countries, including, for example, eyelashes, as well as color pigments for permanent eyebrow and lip makeup. Meanwhile, PhiAcademy is the market leader in B2B trade with beauty products. The beauty products are sold exclusively to business customers via a B2B store and are shipped worldwide in over 100,000 packages per year.
The company is headquartered in Vienna, in the 23 District, there are about 50 employees. Promoting the rise of the company were both the high-quality products, as well as the training offer, which was created especially by an online learning opportunity. This redefined the "classic cosmetics profession" and trained so-called "PhiArtists" between the ages of 18 and 35. Since then, the company and its community have been growing strongly.
Vanilla Reply is the expert for web applications and e-commerce. Our interdisciplinary teams implement cloud-based solutions powered by Javascript and PHP. Together with performant product partners such as Shopware, Sylius, Akeneo, Storyblok and TYPO3, we ensure smooth integration into existing system landscapes and a minimal time-to-market. As part of Reply Digital Experience, we provide consulting services to our customers on the topics of PIM and CMS as well as on the implementation of digitization initiatives.