How Hue Helped Kate Somerville Increase Conversion Rate by 23.9%

A Vision for Change

Kate Somerville is a household name in beauty, trusted for its clinical-grade skincare solutions. But even a powerhouse like Kate Somerville faces modern ecommerce challenges—today’s consumers expect more than just product pages. They crave an immersive, engaging, and personalized shopping experience. Simply listing ingredients and benefits wasn’t enough. They needed a way to connect emotionally with shoppers at the decision-making moment.

Enter Hue, an embedded UGC shopping app for brands and retailer eCommerce, designed to seamlessly integrate user-generated video content into product detail pages (PDPs). The idea? Let customers see real people using the products in an authentic way, bridging the gap between inspiration and purchase.

The Problem: Static Product Pages in a Video Shopping World

Kate Somerville has seen incredible success and virality on TikTok, with shoppers resonating with the authentic, user generated content. They wanted to evolve its PDPs to match their consumers' video-first behavior. Traditional product pages were functional but lacked the experiential engagement that today’s shoppers expect. Static images and text were great, but they weren’t tapping into the power of social proof or storytelling.

What was at stake?

• Conversion Rates: Would visitors who watched UGC video reviews be more likely to buy?
• Average Order Value (AOV): Would shoppers spend more per order when engaging with UGC videos?
• Revenue per Visitor (RPV): Would more engaged visitors translate into higher revenue?

Kate Somerville needed data—not just gut instinct—to validate whether shoppable UGC videos could impact these key metrics.

The Solution: Testing Hue’s UGC Video Shopping Experience

Hue's shoppable UGC videos enable brands to showcase real customer experiences directly on PDPs. Instead of expecting customers to seek out video reviews elsewhere, Hue brings testimonials, tutorials, and real-user content right into the shopping flow. The seamless integration with Shopify meant Kate Somerville could test it quickly without development headaches.

How Hue's UGC Community Works:

Kate Somerville worked with Hue to source 47 videos and 92 before-and-after photos for 3 products to demonstrate how products perform on real people. 

‍

• Hue matched Kate Somerville with creators in the Community who represent the brand's consumer.
• Hue’s UGC creators produced 30-60-second video reviews over a 2-4 week product usage period.
• Creators captured before-and-after images to show their skin's progression over time.
• Hue reviewed all content, with final approval by Kate Somerville.
• Hue automatically tagged videos with product details and creator characteristics.

How Hue's Tech Solution Works:

• Embeds video content directly on PDPs, allowing shoppers to see real users applying and reviewing products.
• Includes direct "Shop Now" call-to-actions within videos, creating an interactive shopping experience.
• Provides an intuitive, mobile-optimized experience that aligns with how modern shoppers browse and buy.

The Methodology: A/B Testing Hue with Shoplift

Rather than guessing, Kate Somerville and Hue took a systematic approach using Shoplift’s A/B testing platform. Shoplift made it easy to set up, analyze, and iterate on tests without disrupting the overall site experience.

What They Tested:

1. Adding Hue videos to three product pages – Would embedded UGC videos drive measurable conversion uplifts?
2. Splitting traffic 50/50 – Would PDPs with Hue perform better than those without across all audience types? 

This approach ensured they weren’t just measuring improvement but also validating the necessity of video-based UGC in the customer journey.

The Results: Big Wins with Shoppable UGC

After three weeks of testing, the results were clear.

• ExfoliKate Intensive PDP Test:
  
  • Conversion Rate: +25.4%
  • Revenue per Visitor (RPV): +43.7%
  • Average Order Value (AOV): +14.6%
• EradiKate Hue PDP Test:
  
  • Conversion Rate: +22.5%
  • Revenue per Visitor (RPV): +30.7%
  • Average Order Value (AOV): +6.6%

• Mega-A PDP Test:
  
  • Conversion Rate: +23.7%
  • Revenue per Visitor (RPV): +14.3%
  • Average Order Value (AOV): -12.3%

What This Means:

• Shoppable UGC works – Visitors who saw Hue videos converted at a significantly higher rate.
• More revenue per visitor – Not only were more shoppers buying, but they were also spending more.
• The presence of UGC is crucial – Shoppable videos led to improvements across the entire funnel, reinforcing their importance in PDP optimization and beyond.

The Conclusion: More Engaging PDPs, More Revenue

Kate Somerville’s tests with Hue, validated through Shoplift’s A/B testing platform, prove that shoppable UGC videos are a must-have for modern ecommerce brands. The results speak for themselves—when customers see products in action, they feel more confident making a purchase.

For beauty and skincare brands (or any ecommerce brand, really) looking to optimize their PDPs, this case study highlights a clear takeaway:

Adding shoppable UGC videos isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a revenue-driving powerhouse.

To learn more about Hue’s Shoppable Video Platform, visit poweredbyhue.com or contact partnerships@poweredbyhue.com to schedule a demo.

‍