How GlossGenius tripled experimentation velocity with Eppo to deliver better customer experiences
- 3x
Increase in marketing experiments
- 100%
Adoption at GlossGenius in under 3 Months
- Industry
Beauty & Wellness
- Headquarters
New York, United States
- Company
GlossGenius is the technology engine powering the beauty and wellness industry, offering trusted software to start, run, and grow a salon or spa of any size.
- Data Stack
Segment, Snowflake, dbt, Looker, Mixpanel, Hex, DataHub, Airflow, Eppo
About
GlossGenius, the technology engine powering the beauty and wellness industry, was seeking deeper insights to help create better product experiences for their customers. Zach Harris, Manager, Product Analytics, and Katie Bauer, Head of Data, recognized the need for structured experimentation to navigate increasing product complexity and scale. The stakes were high, and they needed a solution—fast.
Challenges
- Qualitative Decision Making
GlossGenius relied on qualitative customer feedback and surface-level metrics to inform product decisions. As their product suite grew more complex, they needed a rigorous, data-driven approach to make decisions.
- Experimentation Bottleneck
The team was in need of a more robust A/B testing program to increase experimentation velocity.
- Scaling Complexity
Measuring the true impact of changes became challenging as their customer base grew, especially when simultaneous product launches and seasonality were involved.
The Tipping Point
The rapid growth of GlossGenius’s feature set and customer base emphasized the limitations of their existing approach. Despite extensive analysis, the team was in need of a better way to attribute top-of-funnel changes to specific actions and product experience updates. Leadership knew there was an opportunity to drive more clarity for future initiatives.
The Solution: Eppo
Zach and Katie knew from experience that building an in-house solution would require extensive resources pulled away from strategic initiatives focused on serving customers, making it a costly and time-consuming option. They needed a platform that could be implemented quickly and easily understood by all stakeholders. That’s why they chose Eppo.
Key Benefits of Eppo
- Warehouse-Native Integration
This ensures absolute alignment between core BI tools and A/B test results, eliminating data discrepancies and ensuring everyone—from data analysts to executives—could trust the insights. Zach shared, “Before Eppo, discrepancies between experiment metrics across tools was common. Now, I know our data is aligned across the board, and that confidence is invaluable.”
- Intuitive User Interface
Eppo’s intuitive UI stood out compared to other tools that were overwhelming with excessive metrics and charts. This simplicity helped prevent data misinterpretation, making it accessible to non-experts, including the leadership team. As Katie put it, “Even knowing what I was looking at, some other tools just had too much going on. I didn’t want people fishing for results or latching onto spurious findings.”
- Sensible Default Settings
Over time, the team appreciated Eppo’s well-thought-out default settings, which worked well across various scenarios without requiring extensive customization. Katie adds, “It wasn’t a part of our original evaluation criteria but we kept finding these smart default choices that just worked perfectly for us. It was like Eppo was anticipating our needs before we even knew them.”
- Exceptional Support
Real-time technical discussions with Eppo’s team, especially through the shared Slack channel, have boosted credibility when presenting to stakeholders. “The quick, attentive responses have saved me hours of reading random statistics articles,” said Zach. “Being able to show stakeholders that we’ve consulted with on-demand experimentation experts and present our conclusions adds a layer of trust in our approach and reinforces confidence in the platform’s capabilities.”
- Comprehensive Metrics Analysis
Eppo’s ability to easily define and add multiple metrics provides a holistic view of experiment performance. Rather than focusing on just one metric, stakeholders can assess a wide range of metrics to understand product performance across the board.
Results
Zach and Katie knew that embedding a culture of experimentation required more than just a tool—it needed commitment across the board. Eppo’s implementation enabled a significant cultural shift within GlossGenius with regard to the company’s approach to data.
- 13x increase in Experiments
The team tripled the number of experiments analyzed, allowing them to move from a qualitative approach to a precision-driven strategy, resulting in smarter investments and more honest assessments of their initiatives.
- 2Rapid Adoption and Cultural Shift
Within three months, Eppo has seen organization-wide adoption at GlossGenius across technical and non-technical teams. This integration ignited a cultural shift, embedding experimentation into the company’s operations. As Katie observed, “Experimentation is becoming a fundamental part of how we operate as a business.”
Experimentation Council: GlossGenius established an Experimentation Council, bringing key stakeholders together to regularly review ongoing and upcoming experiments. This ensures that every experiment is conducted rigorously and that insights are accurately interpreted and applied to create better products for customers. - 3Executive Engagement
Monthly Eppo reviews with the executive team, where one goal is to highlight the velocity and outcomes of experiments, reinforce the importance of data-driven decision-making and ensure that experimentation remains a priority.
Favorite Eppo Feature
Katie Bauer
Head of Data
“It’s a game-changer for getting a quick sense of where we stand and where we need to focus.”
The “Insights” tab has become a go-to resource. It offers a top-down view of all ongoing and concluded experiments, making it easy to monitor the company’s experimentation program without the need for manual tracking tools.
The image below shows this view with placeholder data
Zach Harris
Product Analytics Manager
“Explaining the reliability of our results has never been easier.”
For Zach, it’s the visual presentation of results that stands out. Eppo’s clear and engaging displays, especially the green indicators and celebratory icons for successes, help build a positive culture around experimentation. He also appreciates the clarity of the confidence intervals, which used to be a time-consuming task but are now effortlessly integrated into Eppo’s interface.
Advice for Teams Starting Their Experimentation Journey
- Shift Your Mindset
“Experimentation requires humility when things don’t go as planned. Our first A/B test yielded neutral results, surprising the team who expected immediate validation. Previously, we leaned on generally positive customer feedback and had less discipline in metrics to evaluate the success of an initiative, Eppo has helped us emphasize that neutral or unexpected outcomes provide valuable insights, not failures. It’s still a work in progress, but with each test, we move in the right direction.”
Katie Bauer - Start with a Clear Use Case
“Begin with a straightforward, low-risk scenario to build your experimentation skills. At GlossGenius, we started by distinguishing the impact of marketing spend from product changes. This clear focus made it easier to get everyone on board and once we nailed this initial use case it opened the door for broader experimentation across the organization.”
Zach Harris
Conclusion: A Strategic
Partnership for Lasting Impact
For GlossGenius, Eppo has been more than just a tool—it’s been a strategic partner in their journey towards data-driven excellence, transforming the company’s experimentation culture.Zach and Katie agree—Eppo has delivered real results, and it shows.
