LOOKFANTASTIC: Localisation for an Optimised Online Performance

The Challenge 
Since becoming part of THG in 2018, THG Fluently has worked closely with THG brands to help fulfil their global ambitions. In 2021, THG’s LOOKFANTASTIC – a market leader in beauty ecommerce – took on its most extensive localisation project to date as it looked to scale and boost performance across Europe and APAC. 
 
The goals? To strengthen LOOKFANTASTIC’s position in markets where a presence was already established and to enhance their organic positioning and conversion rate (CVR) through an in-depth review of the SEO strategy for the different markets. All this while also boosting brand credibility across locales. 
 
Our Approach 
These requirements resulted in a six-month, 22-million-word project to localise product titles and descriptions for SEO in 19 different languages across Europe and Asia.  
 
THG Fluently took special steps to ensure we could scale with the sheer volume and turnaround demands of this ambitious task. We onboarded and trained 240 linguists and 25 quality assessors; plus, we doubled the size of our project management team to oversee, monitor and report progress back to LOOKFANTASTIC. With the project timeline spanning across summer and Covid-19 restrictions easing, we forecasted a decline in available linguists, with holidays being taken, and therefore planned to deliver ahead of schedule in the earlier months to ensure deadlines weren’t impacted.  
 
Cost was another significant factor for LOOKFANTASTIC due to the size of the project. However, having worked with THG Fluently since 2018, a Translation Memory (TM) was already available, providing the ability to leverage past translations to gain cost efficiencies. We had also enhanced the TM beforehand by translating all repetitions across all files for this project, requiring a significant level of file preparation and engineering which was all achieved in-house by our specialist team. Refining and utilising this TM meant that LOOKFANTASTIC reduced unnecessary spending and stayed within budget. 
 
Impact 
 
By forecasting the potential reduction in available linguists over the summer months, THG Fluently committed to over-delivering in the opening months of the project, translating an additional 84,000 SKUs by July 2021.  
 
LOOKFANTASTIC saw immediate results from this, particularly in the Spanish market, where CVR figures showed a 112.5% year-on-year increase with 86.8% of SKUs translated. By September, all Spanish translations were complete, with CVR seeing a YoY growth of 235.7%. This showcased the immediate impact localisation had on website performance. 
 
Likewise, as of September 2021, LOOKFANTASTIC also reported that across all non-EN locale product pages, session counts were up 106% year-to-date versus 2020, indicating that the increased performance seen in Spain was also experienced across all languages involved in the project. 
 
When asked about the project, LOOKFANTASTIC’s International SEO Manager, Carmen Dominguez, said: "Working with THG Fluently has been a very enjoyable experience. The organisation and flexibility of the team meant we were all able to work together and negotiate where needed to find the best approach for such a large-scale project. This was particularly useful at the start, when navigating and negotiating demands on resources and timelines to suit both our requirements and THG Fluently’s capacity. The results speak for themselves, and we’re excited to see the long-term impacts of this project."