Alyce Cucurullo, President, Laura Geller Beauty

Windows Azure Customer Solution Case Study

Cosmetics Company Uses Social E-Commerce To Boost Sales

“With our Blucarat-powered website running in the stable, scalable Windows Azure cloud, we easily handle huge spikes in traffic and billing transactions.” Alyce Cucurullo, President, Laura Geller Beauty Laura Geller Beauty needed to increase website capacity to support high traffic during sales and promotions. To ensure sufficient site performance, the company chose Blucarat Commerce, built on Windows Azure and created by New York–based e-commerce expert Blucarat. Laura Geller Beauty also chose Blucarat Social, which complements Blucarat Commerce with rich social- collaboration capabilities. Consequently, the company’s revenue and market reach have rapidly expanded.

Business Needs early versions of its web store did not Laura Geller Beauty offers high-quality, reflect the company’s vision. prestige cosmetics and is renowned for its range of baked makeup “Laura Geller Beauty is about making products, which are hand-crafted in beauty easy and approachable. Our Italy to deliver vibrant yet weightless mission is to ‘help you achieve your color. Years ago, Laura Geller Beauty most beautiful self,’” explains Alyce recognized that direct online sales Cucurullo, President of Laura Geller would be a key source of revenue, but Beauty. “We needed a highly

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published July 2013 functional e-store to support a stronger partner’s most advanced version of of Parallel Extensions to the .NET brand identity and reach more of our Blucarat Commerce—a high- Framework for more efficient customers.” She further notes that this performance e-commerce platform, performance. vision includes creating a sense of content management suite, and online community among customers through transaction technology with advanced Benefits social media. marketing and order management Laura Geller Beauty uses the entire capabilities. Blucarat solution suite running in the With its rising popularity, Laura Geller reliable, scalable Windows Azure cloud Beauty achieved accelerated site traffic, More recently, Laura Geller Beauty to meet spikes in demand. The through promotions on QVC, and adopted a beta version of Blucarat company also uses social-collaboration email-marketing campaigns. During Social, which brings social commerce features in Blucarat Social to promote popular sales, traffic sometimes capabilities to the company’s web a sense of community and loyalty increased 10-fold in one day, exceeding store. The technology powers the among customers and to drive social the capacity of the company’s existing Laura Geller Beauty Bar—a virtual conversations. web platform. community for the company’s social media customers. With Blucarat Social, Unlimited Site Capacity Similarly, Laura Geller Beauty wasn’t Laura Geller Beauty also gains “social Blucarat Commerce powered by able to take advantage of bigger online listening,” for visibility into its Windows Azure scales to meet any marketing opportunities. For instance, customers’ interests, interactions, and level of site traffic that Laura Geller when Good Morning America asked recommendations, before and after Beauty requires. For example, a year Laura Geller Beauty to participate in its they make a purchase, all in real-time. after the previously missed high-profile ‘Beauty Steal of the Day’ opportunity, Good Morning America segment, the company initially had to “Blucarat demonstrated a deep again approached Laura Geller Beauty pass it up. “We could not risk a site appreciation for the social side of our for a cosmetics promotion. “We crash, and I would not allow our brand,” says Cucurullo. “Anybody can accepted the offer, and our Blucarat introduction to the Good Morning put together a pretty website, but site performed flawlessly,” says America audience to be anything but a Blucarat understands the convergence Cucurullo, “even with a 100-fold traffic success,” says Cucurullo. of e-commerce and social.” She also increase.” She notes that 91 percent of notes the importance of ongoing traffic was first-time visitors—a key Laura Geller Beauty needed a flexible Blucarat managed services and help indicator that Laura Geller Beauty can web platform and hosting solution that with marketing and messaging efforts. attract and is able to support an ever- could scale to keep up with its sales and Laura Geller Beauty had previously growing audience of online shoppers. traffic spurts and with overall business looked at other vendors’ services but growth. The platform would also have rejected them as being incomplete. More Shoppers, Higher Sales to support the company’s social More Laura Geller Beauty customers marketing initiatives. Blucarat selected Windows Azure means more billing transactions. The cloud hosting for its high reliability ability to handle transaction growth is Solution and scalability, and because it works especially critical given the company’s To address these challenges, Laura seamlessly with Microsoft already stellar conversion rates. Geller Beauty worked with Blucarat. The technologies, it is familiar to the “During a recent flash sale, we reached Microsoft Partner Network member Blucarat developer staff. These include 16.7 percent conversion with no builds social commerce websites for the Microsoft .NET Framework and the payment processing slowdowns,” says midsize to enterprise-level online Microsoft Visual Studio development Cucurullo. She estimates that this retailers and provides a full set of digital system, in addition to open source translates into a two-fold monthly marketing and media services designed languages, such as JavaScript and revenue increase. She also notes that to boost consumer engagement, drive AJAX. Windows Azure SQL Database any site downtime or failed shopping qualified traffic, and increase online handles data operations in online carts are truly a thing of the past. conversion. Laura Geller Beauty retailers’ customer accounts. upgraded its web platform to the Additionally, Blucarat takes advantage Social Features for Repeat Business

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published July 2013 Laura Geller Beauty has only begun to “Geller Girls” already spreads the word tap into the social features of Blucarat, about Laura Geller Beauty through Cucurullo concludes, “Our website is, but early results foretell successes to social media, such as Facebook. As the at its core, powered by Windows come. Cucurullo says, “Social can be the Geller Girls and their referrals shift Azure, so we know it will keep up with biggest gift when you have an active, toward socializing on the Laura Geller us as we grow. I can go home at night engaged community who loves your Beauty site—through Blucarat Social— without worrying about site crashes. brand. And we have that.” A loyal the brand gains valuable analytics That’s when I say to myself, ‘Nicely following of customers called the about their shopping behavior. done Blucarat. Nicely done Microsoft.’”

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published July 2013