Blog, Case Studies

Glow Up! ESPA enhances its eCommerce experience with StoryStream

ESPA banner image

ESPA’s mission is to get you glowing. Guided by a holistic philosophy, ESPA care for every aspect of their customers’ wellbeing. Alongside naturally effective, sustainably produced skincare products, ESPA offers in-person spa experiences through their global network of ESPA Experts. It’s everything you need to look – and feel – your very best.

So when it came to getting their eCommerce site looking and feeling its best, ESPA knew they could rely on the wonderful community of fans and customers already advocating their products across social media.

In support of that vision, StoryStream experiences are now live across three key parts of ESPA’s digital journey:

  • Homepage mosaic – featuring a blend of engaging owned and user-generated content, curated in a beautiful mosaic format. The experience includes shoppable “SmartGoals” that drive traffic directly to product pages – and deliver a boost to conversions.
  • Gallery page – a standalone inspiration page, encouraging users to share their ESPA experience, categorised by Body, Face, Home, and Spa.
  • LinkStream – designed to put the “social” back into “social selling”, giving visitors to ESPA’s Instagram page a shoppable “link in bio” experience.

In all three instances, an integration between the ESPA product catalogue and StoryStream’s Aura AI makes the otherwise laborious process of adding shoppable CTAs to imagery and video a cinch.

ESPA Skincare Item View

Danny Golby, Managing Director at ESPA International, sees StoryStream as a true strategic partner. “At ESPA, we put our customers at the heart of everything we do. Our range of sustainably sourced and sustainably-packaged skincare products, supplements and routines are used by our customers across the globe to relax, rejuvenate, soothe and energise. We love seeing what our customers are doing with their ESPA products, so bringing that content back into the heart of our eCommerce experience was a key strategic opportunity for us.”

“Our partnership with StoryStream is helping to turn that vision into a reality. We can amplify the voice of our community across our digital channels, and manage all the rights request and curation workflows in one platform.”

Glow up, and up…

Results so far have been extraordinarily encouraging for ESPA. By mixing brand-created social media posts with posts from ESPA customers, the team has curated a highly engaging set of StoryBoard experiences.

For visitors to the ESPA site who see a Storyboard, the engagement rate sits at 70.8%, with 10.8% of users clicking on and expanding content hosted in the modules. The average session duration of a user who has engaged with a StoryBoard sits at seven minutes, 250% above the two-minute benchmark for users who have not engaged with a StoryBoard.

Pages carrying a StoryStream experience are stickier, too: pages with a Storyboard return a 12.3% exit rate (i.e. the end of a user’s site journey) versus a 29.5% exit rate for pages without.

Perhaps the most compelling story emerges around conversion, though: the 6.7% conversion rate evidenced by users who have engaged with StoryStream storyboard is more than double the 2.9% for users who haven’t.

Danny sees a bright future in the partnership. “We’re so excited by what we’re seeing, and look forward to working with our team at StoryStream on opportunities to scale those early insights.”

The digital transformation of ESPA and its online success has been powered by the world-class DTC solutions available with THG Ingenuity. Designed to empower brands looking to start or expand their online journey, Ingenuity is the DTC force behind many of the world’s most recognised brands across beauty, retail, FMCG and beyond. StoryStream have partnered with THG Ingenuity to open doors to UGC curation and visual commerce, further enhancing brand experience with Ingenuity’s industry-leading solution empowering brands to thrive online.

From digital and technology solutions, to fulfilment and operations on an international scale, discover the world of THG Ingenuity by visiting their website.