Chloe Beauty: E-Business Report

Chloe Beauty is a skincare-only business based in Walton on Thames that combines in-salon skin treatments with an online shop of skincare products and an educational blog, the Journal. The website is built on TanStack Start, a modern React framework, with Shopify providing product management, cart and secure checkout. Contact details, click-to-call, WhatsApp and email links support bookings.

The marketing strategy is content-led: seasonal campaigns such as the Christmas 20% offer, search-optimised Journal articles and social media (Instagram and TikTok) drive awareness, while the shop and booking routes convert interest. The strategy is structured with the RACE framework (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019).

The main performance focus is conversion: turning website visitors into product buyers and treatment bookings, measured through analytics and Shopify sales data.

2.1 Business concept and value proposition

Chloe Beauty follows a hybrid “clicks and bricks” model, combining a physical salon with online retail (Laudon and Traver, 2021). Its value proposition is specialist expertise: rather than offering every beauty service, it focuses only on skin. Customers can book a professional facial, chemical peel or LED therapy, then continue results at home with the same products used in the salon. The Journal adds value by educating customers, building trust before purchase. This focus differentiates the brand from general beauty salons and from mass-market online retailers that offer no personal advice.

2.2 Digital platform

The website is built with TanStack Start, a React framework that renders pages on the server. Server rendering means pages load quickly and are readable by search engines, which matters for organic visibility (Google, 2024). Each page — Treatments, Shop, Journal, Christmas and Contact — has its own address and search metadata. The design uses a consistent blush and lavender palette with elegant serif headings to communicate a calm, premium brand.

Compared with a template builder such as Wix, this approach gives greater control over speed, layout and future features, although it requires more technical skill to maintain. Compared with a full CMS such as WordPress, it avoids plugin bloat and security updates, but blog posts currently need to be added by the developer rather than through an editor screen.

2.3 Supporting systems

• E-commerce (Shopify): products, prices, stock and checkout are managed in Shopify and shown on the site through the Storefront API. Shopify handles card payments, Apple Pay and Google Pay securely, removing the need for the business to store payment data and supporting PCI DSS compliance (Shopify, 2024).
• Cart: a persistent bag keeps items between visits and stays synchronised with Shopify, reducing lost sales.
• Contact and booking: click-to-call, WhatsApp, email and a map make it easy to reach the salon from a phone.
• CRM (recommended next step): Shopify Customers combined with an email tool such as Klaviyo would allow segmentation and automated follow-ups, for example a reminder to rebook a facial after six weeks.

2.4 Justification

From an e-business perspective, these choices reduce cost and risk. Shopify is a proven, scalable platform with low transaction overheads for a small business, while a custom front end preserves brand identity and performance. Integrating rather than building payments allows the owner to concentrate on customers. Together the systems support the multichannel model: online content attracts customers, the shop generates revenue at any time of day, and the salon delivers high-value services that encourage repeat product purchases.

3.1 Target audience and segmentation

Segmentation uses demographic, psychographic and behavioural variables (Kotler and Armstrong, 2021).

• Primary segment — “Skin-conscious professionals”: women aged 25–45 living in Walton on Thames and surrounding Surrey towns, household income above £40,000, working full time. They value self-care, research products before buying, and are willing to pay for visible results and expert advice.
• Secondary segment — “Gift buyers”: partners, friends and family aged 25–60 buying vouchers and gift sets, particularly around Christmas and Mother’s Day. They buy occasionally, are time-poor and want simple, attractive options.
• Behaviour: both segments use smartphones as their main device, discover brands through Instagram, TikTok and Google search, and read reviews before booking.

3.2 Framework: RACE

The strategy is organised with Smart Insights’ RACE framework — Reach, Act, Convert, Engage (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019).

• Reach: local SEO through a Google Business Profile, search-optimised Journal articles (e.g. “Surviving Winter Skin”), Instagram Reels and TikTok videos showing treatment results, and targeted Meta ads within a 10-mile radius.
• Act: the home page and Journal encourage interaction — reading guides, browsing treatments and viewing products. Clear calls to action (“Shop skincare”, “Book a treatment”) guide visitors forward.
• Convert: the Shop with prices and an “Add to bag” button, secure Shopify checkout, click-to-call and WhatsApp booking, and seasonal incentives such as 20% off at Christmas.
• Engage: email newsletters with skincare tips, rebooking reminders, a loyalty offer and requests for Google reviews turn first-time buyers into repeat customers.

3.3 Channels and content

Instagram and TikTok are chosen because the primary segment spends significant time on visual social platforms and skincare results are highly visual; before-and-after content and short routines perform well (Ofcom, 2024). Google search and local SEO capture customers with high intent, such as “facial near me”. The Journal supports SEO and positions the salon as an expert, answering questions customers already search for. Email is low-cost and suits the engage stage, where retention is cheaper than acquisition. Seasonal landing pages, such as the Christmas page, give paid and social campaigns a focused destination, which improves conversion compared with sending traffic to the home page.

3.4 Customer journey

The journey follows the AIDA funnel — Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action (Strong, 1925, cited in Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019).

• Awareness: Sophie, 32, sees an Instagram Reel of a Hydrafacial at Chloe Beauty.
• Interest: she visits the website and reads the Journal post about winter skin on her phone.
• Desire: she browses Treatments, sees transparent prices and the Christmas 20% offer.
• Action: she buys the Vitamin C Serum online and books a Skin Consultation via WhatsApp.
• Loyalty: after her visit she receives an email with aftercare tips and a rebooking reminder, and leaves a review.

Each touchpoint is designed for mobile, reflecting the audience’s habits.

3.5 Justification

These choices support the business goals of increasing online sales and bookings. Content builds trust, which is essential in skincare where customers worry about reactions and wasted money. Local targeting keeps advertising spend efficient, and combining products with treatments raises average customer value, since salon clients become repeat product buyers.

4.1 Key challenge: conversion rate

As a new website, Chloe Beauty’s main challenge is converting visitors into customers. Average e-commerce conversion rates are around 2–3% (Shopify, 2024), and a new brand with little reputation may fall below this. Visitors may browse products but leave at the bag or checkout stage — known as cart abandonment.

4.2 Tools and metrics

• Google Analytics 4: sessions, traffic sources, engagement rate, pages per session and funnel exploration reports showing where visitors drop off.
• Shopify Analytics: online store conversion rate, add-to-cart rate, reached-checkout rate, average order value and abandoned checkouts.
• Google Search Console: search impressions, clicks and keyword positions for Journal articles.
• CRM / email platform: open rates, click-through rates and repeat purchase rate.
• Heatmaps (e.g. Microsoft Clarity): where visitors click and how far they scroll on mobile.

4.3 Applying the tools

First, a funnel report in GA4 would map the steps Home → Shop → Product → Add to bag → Checkout → Purchase. If many visitors view products but do not add them to the bag, the product page needs improvement — clearer benefits, ingredient lists, reviews and better photography. If they add to bag but abandon checkout, Shopify’s abandoned-checkout emails can recover sales automatically, and shipping costs should be shown earlier.

Second, traffic source data identifies which channels bring buyers rather than just visitors. If Instagram brings many visits but few sales while Google search converts strongly, budget can be shifted towards SEO and Journal content.

Third, A/B testing — for example comparing “Add to bag” with “Buy now”, or testing the Christmas offer banner on the home page — provides evidence for decisions instead of guesswork (Kohavi, Tang and Xu, 2020).

Finally, heatmaps show whether mobile users see the key call to action without scrolling. Combining these tools creates a cycle of measure, analyse, improve and re-measure, so that conversion steadily increases.

5.1 Building and launching

Building Chloe Beauty showed me how many connected decisions a digital business involves. I started with a broad idea — beauty treatments, products and a blog — and quickly realised the brand needed focus. Narrowing it to skincare only made the message clearer and made content, products and treatments support each other. This reflects the importance of a clear value proposition before choosing technology.

5.2 Learning from tools and data

Using an AI-assisted development tool allowed me to build a working website quickly, but I learned that the tool depends on precise instructions; vague requests produced results I had to refine, such as changing the Christmas page style. Connecting Shopify taught me how e-commerce platforms separate the shop front from product management and payments. Adding real products, prices and a working bag made the project feel like a genuine business, and testing the checkout demonstrated the importance of checking the full customer journey rather than individual pages.

Although the site is new and has limited traffic data, planning the analytics approach helped me understand which metrics actually matter. Conversion rate and traffic source are more useful than simple page views because they connect directly to revenue.

5.3 Skills developed

• Digital strategy: applying RACE and funnel models to a real business.
• Platform skills: configuring an e-commerce system, products and checkout.
• Content creation: writing SEO-friendly blog posts and campaign pages.
• Design thinking: choosing colour, typography and layout to match a target audience.
• Critical evaluation: comparing platforms and justifying choices.

5.4 Areas for improvement

I would add an online booking system with deposits, a CRM with email automation, and customer reviews earlier in the project. I would also set measurable targets from the start, such as a 2% conversion rate in the first three months, and install analytics before launch so decisions could be based on data.

5.5 Future practice

These skills are directly relevant to a career in digital marketing or e-commerce management, and to future modules on analytics and strategy. I now understand that a digital business is never finished: it is launched, measured and continuously improved.