Since 2018, THG Commerce has been infusing data-led generative AI (GenAI) into the customer experience to provide personalized product advice and recommendations through product attribution modelling and semantic search.

But THG Commerce also uses AI to create unique buying guides to help drive sales through interactive, engaging and genuinely useful tools – specifically, the Foundation Finder.

Learn how we achieved it below.

The challenges

Selecting a foundation color has historically been an intensive, in-person experience – visiting a beauty store, discussing with an expert to find the right shade for your skin tone, trying on a variety of different shades before hitting on the one that’s right for you and your skin.

Embracing an online approach to an offline experience, the software engineers at THG Commerce were tasked with the challenge of translating the traditional in-store foundation matching process into an online experience.

The solution

Our team used a specialized spectrophotometer to measure and collate the exact shades of over 3,500 different foundations. Customers could send in a selfie, which would then be compared against these foundations to help them find the perfect shade to suit their skin.

Of 400 Glossybox subscribers who tested the Foundation Finder tool, 80% reported the match they received was exact or close to their actual skin tone. This experience was augmented further with the introduction of a quiz, designed to identify a customer’s foundation preferences to help determine their best shade match. 

The results

The success of the LOOKFANTASTIC Foundation Finder is apparent with 426,000 visits to the foundation finder resulting in almost 20,000 orders. Foundation sales through the tool surged 159% during last year’s Black Friday period and LOOKFANTASTIC expects a similar spike this year.

Since the tool was introduced, sales of brands such as Illamasqua and Laura Mercier are up 14% and 13% respectively year on year.

Indeed, foundation sales doubled compared to the same period the year before. In 2024 Q2, we saw a 6% uplift in purchases via the Foundation Finder tool and quiz compared to Q1. Of these purchases, the quiz specifically saw a +128% QoQ increase in orders.

The LOOKFANTASTIC foundation finder now offers over 6,100 different shade options from almost 300 different products from 86 brands including MAC, Maybelline, NARS, Lancome and YSL.

Spurred on by the success of the Foundation Finder, the software engineers at THG Commerce are now looking launch a new concealer finder tool in Q1 2025 – helping shoppers not find the right tone, but also create unique looks for every occasion, from holiday aesthetics to winter styles."

• Over 400,000 visits
• 20,000 orders
• Sales of some brands up 14%