How Estée Lauder enhanced their employee training process with flipbooks

About

Estée Lauder is the flagship brand of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. The brand was founded in 1946 by Mrs. Estée Lauder, one of the world’s first female entrepreneurs. The brand today continues her legacy of creating the most innovative, sophisticated, high-performance skin care and makeup products and iconic fragrances — all infused with a deep understanding of the customer’s needs and desires. Estée Lauder products are sold in more than 135 countries and territories. In the U.S., products are available in better department stores, specialty retailers, and online at esteelauder.com.

The challenge

Education has always been an integral part of Estée Lauder’s business strategy. Each season, the U.S. Education team creates training content to support the Field team, responsible for the delivery of retail sales. Field team members found it frustrating to have to search for these files on Microsoft SharePoint. While SharePoint is an effective file-storage solution, the team needed a user-friendly platform that would allow for easier navigation. Korben Niblett, the digital education lead for the U.S., was responsible for finding a solution.

The solution

Korben soon discovered Flipsnack which was the perfect solution! They used our flipbook maker to create an internal-facing digital document that gave Field teams access to all training content with one single link. Bookmarking this link on their devices gave them on-the-go access to the library of training content. This solved the first pain point.

They divided the document into chapters, making all training information for the season available in one single document. To simplify the workflow and make the document navigation smoother, they relied on internal links. When a Field team member wanted to access a topic, they simply clicked on the desired chapter and used the flipbook’s intuitive design to reach the information. This allows for on-the-spot training–any time, any place. This solved the second pain point.

A more enjoyable process

In addition to making their internal documents easier to access and navigate, Estée Lauder also wanted the content navigation to be enjoyable. So they decided to make the content interactive and visibly engaging. They populated their publications with audio files, videos, GIFs, slideshows, and other interactive elements which made the navigation of the training content fun which increased engagement even more.

More than a training tool

Initially, they considered using Flipsnack exclusively for their internal documents. But during the holiday season, one of the biggest selling moments of the year, they decided to create their first consumer-facing digital publication through Flipsnack. They created a digital gift guide to inspire consumers and keep Estée Lauder top of mind throughout the season.

To maximize its reach, the digital gift guide was available to in-store shoppers through a QR code which was displayed at the counter. The gift guide influenced shoppers to purchase in-store and even after they left. Once again, they relied on Flipsnack’s interactive capabilities to make the browsing experience more exciting. It paid off–resulting in a 62% engagement rate, with an average time spent on the document of 17 minutes.

Future projects between Estée Lauder and Flipsnack

Given the success of the training catalog and the digital gift guide, Estée Lauder will continue to use Flipsnack for future projects. In the future, they plan to use Flipsnack as a digital learning companion versus using numerous printed workbooks. Their future plans include creating a gift guide which includes a click-to-buy feature.

Results

• A more exciting and effective way for their team to access training resources.
• Increased engagement resulting in increased sales.
• A digital gift guide that increases brand awareness and engagement.
• In 3 months, the digital gift guide had over 1000 impressions/clicks, 17 mins average time spent, and a 62% engagement rate.

Conclusion

The U.S. Estée Lauder Education Team considers Flipsnack a valuable tool both for internal and external use. Given the success of the collaboration, Estée Lauder is excited to use Flipsnack for future needs!