B2C Global

Cosnova drives smarter product discovery in 90 markets

Key results

Intuitive brand experience

with fast, intelligent search

Real-time trend matching

thanks to agile product discovery

Huge cost and time savings

due to automated platform management

Ein Lächeln eines Mannes mit Bart, der in einem professionellen Kontext arbeitet, möglicherweise für FactFinder.

Meet Uli Peter

Senior Experience Manager

Uli Peter manages the ongoing development of Cosnova's essence and CATRICE online shops. He ensures all features, services and modules meet the latest trends and sales demands across Europe. He also manages the third-party tools that help visitors shop online, whether they're discovering new cosmetics, trying them on virtually, buying through partner sites or leaving reviews.

The beauty and cosmetics company Cosnova Beauty markets its main brands, essence and CATRICE, across around 90 countries – mostly through drugstores, supermarkets and perfumeries. Staying true to their mission "Make everyone feel more beautiful," Cosnova offers great value for money and an ever-evolving product range, all free from animal testing and solid microplastics. In 2024, the family business reached €954 million in net sales, making it one of the biggest names in the global decorative cosmetics industry. The Cosnova brands' websites aren't just designed for shopping but for an immersive brand experience, where customers can interact digitally with products. Visit the essence and CATRICE online shops.

Zwei Kosmetik-Produktseiten von essence und CATRICE, präsentiert mit ansprechenden Bildern und Texten.

Challenge

In the hyper-competitive beauty and cosmetics industry, Cosnova needs to constantly update its online platforms to match the latest trends and changes. "We keep our finger on the pulse. We're always super fast at bringing new products to market," says Uli. With a large range of cosmetics and new limited edition items dropping every month, the website team works hard to spotlight current and seasonal promotions to shoppers. But the previous search and product discovery solution made this impossible. Its complex user interface created friction in managing search results and product displays. It simply couldn’t keep up with the performance and flexibility Cosnova needed to scale internationally. Each of the 164 platforms has its own language, product range and target audience requirements. "We need to ensure everything displays correctly and each platform meets regional expectations."

Solution

To stay agile and improve team efficiencies, Cosnova switched to FactFinder's smart search and product discovery solution. Its user-friendly interface makes managing multilingual, multi-market platforms easy. The website team can now oversee product data for all countries and languages in one place. With the new solution, Cosnova delivers fast, accurate search results with targeted filtering and sorting — key elements for an unmatched brand experience. Plus, they can quickly adjust result rankings and spotlight selected products or groups for current promotions.

FactFinder's flexibility and intuitive backend are crucial for us, allowing us to quickly respond to changes and continuously improve our platforms.

Uli Peter

Senior Experience Manager at Cosnova

Results

The Cosnova team has gone from juggling several separate tools to a single solution covering all central eCommerce areas. "FactFinder offers us a complete package that creates synergies and saves costs," says Uli. In daily operations, the self-explanatory backend is also crucial for adding synonyms or quickly removing items during recalls: "This used to be difficult for us, but today, I can easily hand it over to a student." Thanks to multi-channel management, Cosnova can roll out optimizations across all platforms at once, but they can also customize them for each market when necessary. This frees up resources and makes the entire website operation more efficient. "I really like the whole system architecture," says Uli.

Cosnova's favorite features

Search and product discovery
Multi channel management
Merchandising

Search and product discovery

With several hundred thousand search queries each month, the search function is one of the most important tools for essence and CATRICE. Customers rely on it to find what they want — and discover new products they never knew they needed. FactFinder handles it all, from short queries like “mascara” to longer ones like “glossy red cheek tint,” even when they include spelling or spacing errors, returning results in a split second. As soon as the first two letters are entered, a clear suggestion menu appears, showing not only complete search terms but also the most relevant products with photos and ratings, helping shoppers find the right items faster. And with the analytics tool, Cosnova can easily identify untapped potential and optimize search results — for example, through synonyms, antonyms, or ranking rules.

Learn more

Multi channel management

Managing Cosnova's 164 platforms in different languages used to be a major challenge for the team. Today, they use FactFinder's parent and child channel hierarchy to control them all centrally. The parent channels automatically pass on their settings to the connected child channels. From ranking rules to filter optimizations to campaigns, all updates and improvements can be rolled out globally, ensuring a consistent customer experience. The child channels can also be adjusted independently to meet regional requirements. "The inheritance logic and rights management are very cleanly set up," says Uli.

Merchandising

In decorative cosmetics, beauty is everything. Visually striking product displays are a must. Even online, customers want an inspiring brand experience where they can see new launches, explore current trends and discover the perfect products. “We’re incredibly agile with FactFinder,” says Uli. Its merchandising module lets brands spotlight select products and sets with just a few clicks. You can add eye-catching banners on search results pages, feature promo items across the shopping journey and create whole themed worlds around seasonal collections — no coding or IT support required.

Learn more

What's next

Keen to strengthen its connection with customers, Cosnova uses interactive features to create a community feel on its online shops. Visitors can virtually test cosmetics using their webcam, share their opinions and upload their own images, creating a more engaging shopping journey. According to Uli, first-party data and personalization also play a key role in delivering the best possible digital experience. With FactFinder's high-performing search and navigation in place, "We can now focus on other projects without having to worry about any remaining issues here. We're really happy that we don’t need to make constant fixes," he summarizes.

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