How Clarins strengthens the management of its e-retail network in Europe

Challenges & Objectives

In a context where the beauty e-commerce sector is growing rapidly, Clarins needed to gain a clear and shared understanding of what was happening with its e-retailers across Europe. The goal: to move from a fragmented and time-consuming monitoring process to a structured approach capable of supporting daily decision-making.

Key challenges:

• Tracking an online market that’s evolving (very) fast: Online sales are growing at a steady pace, with price and availability dynamics changing daily. In some European countries, they already represent a major share of prestige skincare sales, making it impossible to rely on occasional snapshots alone.

• Moving from a “country-by-country” approach to a European vision: Clarins has a very local culture. Historically, each country monitored its e-retailers in its own way – sometimes manually, sometimes with a tool, and sometimes without a consistent methodology. The result: a lot of energy spent collecting information and a vision that was difficult to consolidate at the European level.

• Understanding e-retailers’ strategies while staying within the framework: Clarins wanted to analyze pricing strategies (local vs. European) and online performance among its authorized partners, while maintaining a market-understanding approach.

• Protecting the brand image and network against unauthorized players: The digital space also opens the door to out-of-network resellers and misleading offers (notably via Google Shopping). Clarins needed a reliable way to identify and prioritize these signals.