ULTA Beauty, a major beauty retailer, in partnership with Thanx Media has implemented Oracle Endeca Site Search and Experience Manager. Thanx Media is a leading provider of integrated search solutions and Endeca Professional Services for online retailers. Thanx Media works closely with retailers to leverage best practices that deliver a unified customer experience.

Oracle Endeca has replaced a third party search solution, now tightly integrating the browse and search navigation, resulting in a consistent guest experience with minimal maintenance. The previous lack of integration with the third party search solution caused discrepancies in product data (such as pricing and inventory levels between search and browse) resulting in product listing pages that didn’t always match and a process that lacked the flexibility required by the e-commerce business team.

Michelle Pacynski, VP IT, Customer Facing Systems and Jeff Hamm, Director of E-Commerce at ULTA Beauty jointly led the initiative to replace the third party search platform.  “The decision to replace the existing search was in response to a need to provide a seamless customer experience throughout the site and to put the control into the hands of the business team,” explained Pacynski. “Elevating the e-commerce experience for our guests is a priority,” said Hamm. “Thanx Media was the best partner to help us make that experience more seamless with their expertise, record of success, and ability to meet our time to market needs.”

Oracle Endeca Site Search was phased in just prior to the 2013 holiday shopping season. Positive Q4 results and desire for more business control emphasized the need for a spring-time implementation of Experience Manager. The Thanx Media expertise was leveraged to accelerate the learning curve, impart best practices, and deliver both projects on-time.

“The entire project has been fantastic,” says Paul Matker, Thanx Media CEO. “It’s been a great example of how teamwork and putting together the right set of resources can accelerate an implementation, all while producing results that strongly impact both sales and customer experience.”