It is very easy to fall in love with South Korea: today the whole world is waiting for new products from Samsung, watching pop idols from BTS and Blackpink, watching “The Squid Game” and “Parasite”. In Korea, a real cult of beauty reigns, the scale of its beauty industry is growing rapidly. A couple of years ago, entrepreneur Ksenia Begbeder drew attention to this trend: she realized that the import of Korean cosmetics to is a very promising niche.

This is how the concept of the Kimito multi-brand online store was born. The company supplies cosmetics directly from South Korea, which allows it to be offered to customers at the best prices. But it’s not just about the product – the store strives to share with customers the atmosphere of a distant country, to give magical emotions. This principle is reflected in the service: the presentation of any order is approached very carefully, the purchase must be packaged beautifully and securely. Each order, even the most trifling, is accompanied by a symbolic gift. So the store attracted attention already at the start of sales in the summer of 2020. 

The essence of the project

Initially, a simple site was made for Greenbeauty on a popular CMS. This platform made it possible to evaluate the market: understand the profitability, work out the mechanisms for importing goods and customer service. Kimito quickly realized the huge potential of the niche and set an ambitious goal – to become the largest Korean cosmetics store in . 

But a template site on a foreign engine did not meet such ambitions at all: it worked too slowly, poorly solved current problems and had no prospects for development. For a leap forward, the development of a completely new platform was needed.  

Greenbeauty began to look for a development partner, and soon, on the advice of friends, they contacted us. In February last year, we had our first phone call with them. 

“After several calls, during which we worked out all the possible functionality with the sales manager, we prepared a detailed assessment of the project. And this despite the fact that we have not even started cooperation yet. And the same clear and well-organized work was during all seven months of work with the Vlada project,” said Ksenia Begbeder, Founder at Greenbeauty .

Very soon, the client and I determined the goal of the project: to create a new online store that could become No. 1 in its niche in two years, both in terms of the number of orders and the number of goods.  

To do this, the team had to solve a number of problems

• Create a new structure and design
• Develop a new backend
• Implement a new convenient directory
• Integrate website with 1C and RetailCRM
• Save site position in search engines
• Implement unique selling chips – virtual consultant Kimi

At the end, we needed a beautiful and fast website that could grab the attention of visitors to the product. Particular attention in the development was paid to the mobile version, because 85% of site visitors view it from smartphones. The client fully understood the importance of website promotion, so the EliteWeb agency was involved in the project already at the development stage.

How technologies were chosen

The choice of development tools was not unusual for the team: the Laravell framework, the php language, the Node.js platform. Redis was used to cache data on the backend side, this provided the site with high speed. 

The tech stack ended up looking like this: 

• PHP 7.4 
• Node.Js. 14.13.0
• Laravel
• HTML/CSS
• Redis

How we built the job

We admit that we really enjoyed working with Greenbeauty , they are very bright clients. The team quickly passed the zero sprint with the research stage, approved the design prototype and formed the backlog. Already in March last year, work began to boil.

At the start, we divided the scope of work on the project into 7 stages and regularly moved from deadline to deadline. Based on the results of each stage, a large report on the work done was presented to the client.

Of course, communication was not limited to presentations. The client was always in touch with our manager – in the mode of correspondence and direct phone calls. He could also look at the current documentation and project backlog at any time, find out what the team is working on in the current sprint.   

In general, the development took place without shocks and force majeure. We did the planned amount of work in 125 days – we closed the task a few days before the deadline set for August 30th. 

At the same time, the team and the client had ideas for new features – we entered them into a special file called “For the Future”. The team took up their implementation after the release and continues to develop the product. 

Project complexity

Let’s face it, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. So, when we uploaded resources from the test server to the stage, the SEO-important robots.txt file was left empty due to human error. After the launch, the newborn site was not indexed by search engines for several days. When the problem was revealed, it was immediately eliminated, and the lost positions in the promotion were quickly made up.

What have we achieved

Developed a new backend. This is a completely new custom platform based on the Laravell PHP framework, which is tailored for specific client tasks. It gives the site all the necessary speed and margin of safety, it can easily scale and develop in any direction. 

Created a new product catalog. When choosing cosmetics, Greenbeauty clients are guided by a lot of variables: skin type and condition, age, active ingredient of the product, its texture, etc. To make exploring a huge catalog (1300+ positions) not tedious and dreary, we have implemented a new nesting scheme and a filter system. You can find the “same” scrub in two or three clicks. 

We integrated the site with 1C and RetailCRM. It was important for the client that the new site work without problems with the old and familiar business tools. So we have implemented in the admin panel the full compatibility of the site with the necessary products – a cloud-based online sales system and an accounting platform. The site always displays up-to-date data on product balances and prices – they are pulled directly from 1C. 

Built a comfortable personal office. Through the personal page, the store customer can view the history of their purchases and save the delivery address. But the most important thing is that it is convenient to manage the bonus system there: from each order, the buyer receives 5% cashback to the bonus account. And if you specify the date of birth in your personal account, then by the holiday the store will give the user a personal promotional code. 

Implemented selling “chips”. But what if the client looks at Korean cosmetics for the first time in his life, and does not know where to start? For such users, we made a small game on the site: the virtual consultant Kimi asks the visitor a few questions, after which he selects the most suitable cosmetics from the catalog. Another new selling element is the “Buy in 1 click” button, which can be found in the card of each product. So the user flow of the site becomes even easier.

Development Results

In 125 days, we made a turnkey website for Greenbeauty , went through all the stages of development: from detailed study of the TOR to release. The result of this intense platform is a fast and beautiful eCommerce platform, where you can sort through the world of exotic South Korean cosmetics in a couple of clicks. 

It was very important for the client to maintain traffic indicators after the launch of the new site, because the transition to a new platform can significantly weaken its position in the search. And the team coped with this – a significant drawdown in traffic after the release was avoided. 

The involvement of buyers on the new platform has increased significantly. According to Greenbeauty , during the three months of the new site’s operation, customers left as many reviews as gathered on the old site during the year of operation. In sales, the proportion of regular customers who shop regularly is growing. On the old site, the ratio looked like this: 40% – permanent, 60% – new. Now these proportions have reversed. 

The situation with the turnover of goods has improved. Prior to the launch of the new website, Greenbeauty used to write off 15% of discounted products, whether they had good expiration dates or defective packaging. Now this is not the case, customers easily find a markdown in site navigation.

The team continues to develop the site: it implements new features, helps the client with 1C management and setting up the CRM system. In the near future – the introduction of authorization by SMS, so that the client can enter his personal account without the hassle of e-mail and password.

Fashionistas are delighted to discover Korean brands, and Greenbeauty is successfully moving towards its goal. The store has every chance to become the leading platform in its niche, and in the future to implement omnichannel sales. 

“It would be great to combine offline and online, using access to the site in offline stores. We have seen such an approach in Europe, it really catches the client. It is enough to point the camera at the QR code on the product to open the desired page in the online store. No need to wait for the seller or communicate with him – all the information is in your smartphone,” Founder at Greenbeauty .

We are talking about a new wave of beauty shop, where the line between online and offline is completely lost. And the Seo-Marketing team is ready to help make this revolution – to equip retail sales with new approaches and technologies.