Empowering Avon’s Multi-Million Sales Force Across 52 Markets
Avon came to Monstarlab as a company with over 6 million sales representatives selling products in over 100 countries worldwide but had declining revenue rates and challenges retaining sales representatives. They had identified that the existing infrastructure needed an overhaul to regain business growth, meet consumers’ and representatives' needs, as well as future-proofing their digital capabilities. They wanted to offer a digital experience which created a new era of empowerment for Avon’s global sales reps as well as reducing contact centre traffic and increasing user satisfaction scores.
Avon required a partner to lead their full digitisation strategy, transforming the day-to-day experience of their all-important sales reps, and radically overhauling their catalogue and door-to-door sales model. With the aim of transforming its commercial model and digital ecosystem, Monstarlab was able to drive an enhanced user experience, reduce operational costs, and offer a clear vision to future-proof one of the world's biggest cosmetic brands. The first steps of the engagement included a portfolio review and technical analysis to drive a rapid MVP launch. This then transitioned into an internal Product Strategy workstream to establish our product thinking and values based on Avon's user and technical principles.
Research to MVP to Detailed Product Strategy in 3 Months
Monstarlab consultants conducted user interviews with sales reps in 3 markets, gathered usability and qualitative feedback from 12 markets, and analysed the company’s legacy tech platform thoroughly. From here, we designed and launched an intuitive MVP in just 3 months, and wrote a detailed product strategy and roadmap that we supported for the next 18 months. One key focus of the roadmap was to improve the ordering process for reps, as user research showed this to be laborious and difficult, especially the calculation of commission. Working with the in-house team, we simplified the order flow and developed a simple mobile solution that was live in 37 markets within 6 months, empowering reps to do more, more easily. A second focus was to help reps deliver effective digital marketing activities, supporting the flow from awareness to end-sale, as data showed this was a barrier to retaining new reps. Our new solution combined the power of Avon’s global marketing team with the individuality of Avon’s talented reps and was launched in all live markets within 4 months.
The Result
Enabling Avon to support their reps through an intuitive digital experience led to a significant reduction in (costly) contact centre traffic globally, and a month-by-month increase in user satisfaction scores. The team built native apps across iOS and Android to ensure a seamless user experience integrated with Avon’s internal CRM. The product is now being used across 52 global markets with an average of 500,000 users a month. The partnership with Monstarlab also helped Avon close the gap between their sales reps and in-house product team, with coaching and support to embed a culture of user-centricity and continuous improvement, all aligned against a clear product strategy.
Digital Tool to Manage Sales Reps’ Businesses
Order placing, easy access to support features and push notifications.
Share Marketing Content Easily
High-quality brand and product content, alongside tailored messaging available and easily shareable.
Produce User-Generated Engaging Content
Providing the tools and knowledge for the reps to create their own authentic on-brand content.
- App is being used across 52 global markets.
- 500,000 average monthly users
- Closed the gap between Avon's sales reps and in-house product team, aligning against a clear product strategy.
About Avon
Avon is a leading global beauty company, with more than $10 billion in annual revenue. It is the world’s largest direct seller, and employs 6 million sales representatives globally, in more than 60 countries. In the UK, one in three women knows about Avon and 6 million women see an Avon brochure every three weeks. For more than 130 years, Avon has been devoted to the business of beauty and empowering women. Avon provides innovative, high-quality products at competitive prices. Avon sells a huge range of make-up, fragrance, body care, fashion, home and well-being products, as well as jewellery, lingerie, accessories and gifts.
"The relationship between Avon and Monstarlab grew quickly, developing new collaborative ways of working and rapidly expanding the scope of the partnership. Working together, digital portfolio strategies were born, bringing new ways of working and influencing changes in teams’ structures and product development flows."
