Key metrics
11.9
percentage point increase in add-to-cart rate
+59%
lift in click-through rate
Introduction
Shiseido has been a leader in Japanese beauty since 1872. As customer expectations have evolved, so has the company’s approach to digital touchpoints. In 2024, Shiseido significantly revamped its ecommerce service, Watashi Plus, relaunching it as the official Shiseido Online Store. Soon after the redesign, the team faced a challenge: it had plenty of data but struggled to understand the “why” behind online behavior and make confident decisions. In September 2025, the company introduced Contentsquare.
In this customer story, Yoshihito Morita, UX Planning Group Manager at Shiseido Japan, shares—in his own words—how the team shifted from gut-based decisions to a data-driven approach to improve its digital journeys and customer experience.
The challenge
The Shiseido Online Store is more than a sales channel for the many brands and premium lines Shiseido carries. Our goal is to create a “digital department store for Shiseido”—an online experience on par with physical retail. The online store is a platform for showcasing brand value, highlighting each brand’s mission and creating an immersive experience for customers.
After a major site redesign, we realized the limits of our digital analysis. At the time, we were making many UI and UX improvements, but we couldn’t analyze customer interactions with enough granularity. As a result, when our KPIs and other metrics changed, we couldn’t logically explain what was driving those changes in management meetings. It was a painful situation.
“We couldn’t explain what was driving our KPIs.”
For sustainable growth, we needed objective metrics that reflected the customer experience. But we lacked the tools to fully understand customer needs. Relying on intuition, past experience, or partial data wasn’t enough.
When I saw a presentation about Contentsquare at a conference, I had an immediate “this is exactly what we need” moment. We decided to adopt it soon afterward.
The solution
Before implementation, we felt a kind of “invisible anxiety.” Even when we discussed site improvements and tested hypotheses, we couldn’t explain whether the results were good or bad. The number of UI and UX improvement projects had grown to about 100 per year, but we didn’t fully understand what was driving the changes in our metrics.
After introducing Contentsquare and gaining a more granular view of on-site interactions, our conversations shifted dramatically—from gut feel and guesses to decisions grounded on online behavioral data.
From a management perspective, being able to logically explain outcomes and their causes was crucial. Our Data Analytics team provided training to brand campaign managers, which deepened their understanding of the platform, helping our teams work faster and more confidently.
How Contentsquare helped Shiseido
Journey analysis uncovered a blind spot—increasing add-to-cart rate
Using Contentsquare’s Journey Analysis, we uncovered an important insight on our ‘Purchase History’ page within our customers’ account pages. Customers who wanted to repurchase a product followed this path:
Purchase History → Product Detail Page (PDP) → Add to Cart → Purchase
But actual customer behavior revealed a blind spot: some customers were dropping off as they moved through the product detail page.
We redesigned the flow so customers could add items directly to their cart from ‘Purchase History’, bypassing the PDP.
When we compared customer journeys before and after the change, the rate of users moving directly from ‘Purchase History’ to the cart increased from 4.7% to 16.6%—an 11.9-percentage-point improvement in add-to-cart rate.
Further analysis showed a looping behavior: some customers were moving back and forth between the ‘Purchase History’ page and the cart. We assumed that they were trying to buy multiples of the same product—an unexpected behavior pattern. Thanks to this insight, we’re now developing a new user journey to support multi-item purchases.
Not only can we visualize numbers, but we can understand the “why” behind customer behavior, helping us make more meaningful improvements.
Zone-based analysis drives a +59% lift in click-through rate
After changing the layout of our PDP and adding more detailed visuals to help customers better understand the product, we used Contentsquare’s zone-based heatmaps.
Analysis showed a clear increase in clicks on the product image area above the fold. The change delivered a 59% lift in click-through rate (CTR)—a remarkably strong result.
Previously, setting up individual events in Adobe or Google Analytics was time-consuming. With Contentsquare, the initial setup is quick and allows us to measure and visualize granular page elements, like individual images, whenever we need to. It’s incredibly convenient.
The results
Implementing Contentsquare made us acutely aware of the fact that we were relying on intuition to make decisions, which was preventing us from truly understanding our customers’ needs. Moving to Contentsquare has led to three major changes:
1. Improved decision-making
We’ve moved away from subjective, experience-based decisions toward UX improvements that are backed by data and actual customer behavior.
2. A mindset shift
We’ve gone as far as telling team members: “If you don’t have the data to back up your proposal, it won’t be approved.” This has driven a genuine mindset shift. Rather than relying on instinct, our team looks at customer behavior data before making optimization proposals.
3. Identifying and fixing errors faster
We’ve shifted from prioritizing errors by volume to prioritizing them by customer impact—the negative experience and potential business loss each error creates.
Building a data-driven culture
Rather than simply telling people to “use data,” we focused on building a structured process and encouraging Contentsquare adoption across teams.
Today, my UI/UX team and the Data Analytics team are leading the effort, with ongoing training sessions for brand campaign managers.
As a result, from the very first month of using the tool, Shiseido Japan has ranked among the 300 most active users (out of Contentsquare’s 80,000 global users) each quarter.
We’ve also changed how we use Page Comparator. We now treat multi-session visit rate and purchase rate as key medium- and long-term engagement metrics. Rather than focusing solely on conversion, we take a holistic, customer-centric view and ask whether customers can use our site with ease.
Tracking metrics to drive business results
Short-term we look at conversion rate (CVR). Over the medium and long term, we track trends in multi-session purchase rate, visit rate, bounce rate, and exit rate.
The most meaningful result we’ve seen is the ‘Purchase History’ redesign which led to an 11.9-percentage-point increase in add-to-cart rate.
Contentsquare has gone above and beyond our expectations. Its strong analytical capabilities, combined with the hands-on support we’ve received, have made a significant impact.
What’s next?
Balancing AI-readiness with a seamless digital experience
As AI continues to evolve, we want to build an even more customer-centric future. Next up is creating a site structure that AI can understand and process, while also delivering an intuitive digital experience that humans can navigate seamlessly.
Our ultimate goal is to create an online store that efficiently serves customers, and provides recommendations tailored to each individual’s preferences. We’re committed to continuously improving the Shiseido Online Store.
