FANCL increases average engagement time by 1.42x year-over-year with Yext Search

FANCL was founded by Kenji Ikemori in the 1970s, a time when industry standards for cosmetics were low. Poor-quality products were known to inflame wearers' skin, and Ikemori's own wife suffered from irritation caused by her cosmetics. Ikemori felt strongly that products meant to help women feel beautiful should never cause dermatological problems. He hypothesized that all the additives in cosmetics were irritating sensitive skin, so he began to develop and produce cosmetics without them.

Takaaki Hasegawa, Head of Sales Strategy, e-commerce at FANCL, realized that as the amount of content on FANCL's website increased, the users' website search experience was declining.

FANCL's website sells products through e-commerce, but it also provides a variety of resources for users. Information such as product manuals, instructions on how to use the products, feedback from employees who use the products themselves, and information on more than 170 stores is also hosted on the website. FANCL needed a solution that would help deliver the right website content to customers at moments of high intent.

However, Hasegawa found that most site search solutions he tried simply returned the URL of the page where the keyword was found – meaning that it did not capture the user's intent behind the search keyword.

Hasegawa knew that smaller companies and startups use innovative technology to offer a great user experience, even without the resources of larger companies. He also knew that FANCL needed a significantly better user experience on its website to stay ahead of the competition. This is where he came in contact with Yext.

FANCL implemented Yext Search to improve the search experience on its website. Using Yext's natural language understanding technology, the FANCL website now returns relevant store information when users search for place names. When users search specific skin conditions, their site search experience returns articles describing those conditions, as well as related product information. And when users have seasonal skin concerns, the search results include information on products recommended for that season.

The FANCL team was impressed with the way Yext's search algorithms instantly understood their users' intent. Their site search experience consistently returned the most relevant pieces of content — driving higher rates of user engagement. Using Yext Search, FANCL is now able to fully leverage the potential of the rich content on its website and respond to their users' needs.

Hasegawa knows that as e-commerce users' digital literacy continues to rise, it will become more difficult to satisfy users with a standard e-commerce site. After evaluating different solutions, Hasegawa became confident that Yext is the best site search solution to help users become fans of the FANCL brand, discover new products, and accurately respond to user queries with a wealth of content.

Compared to the previous site search solution, today's FANCL users who use the Yext search experience have seen a 1.42x higher average engagement time per site session year-over-year. This suggests that users are discovering and engaging with more relevant content and products thanks to this search technology that connects users with the results they actually want to see.

Yext's robust analytics capabilities also allow the FANCL marketing team to understand which keywords are the most common in search queries, which products are associated with those keywords, why the algorithm surfaces the products it does — and even helps them identify new opportunities to add content for topics users are asking about that FANCL had not previously considered.

Hasegawa said that under normal circumstances, marketers tend to add too many keywords to increase the hit rate of a search. With Yext, marketers can shift focus to more meaningful keywords, and make keyword optimizations rooted in real search terms.