The document provides an overview and analysis of the men's shaving industry and companies Bevel and Harry's. It summarizes Bevel's products, services, and focus on the needs of minority men. Analytical data shows Harry's significantly outperforms Bevel in key metrics like website visits, unique visitors, bounce rate, and backlinks. The document recommends Bevel add beard and hair styling tutorials to their site to increase engagement.

1. Bevel Content & Traffic Analysis
Industry Overview
Over the last few decades, the world of men’s shaving products has become extremely
competitive with startup companies marketing straight to consumer, the creation of luxury
brands, and the innovations to the standard razor. Gillette, a powerhouse and former king of
the shaving industry now competes with a low budget, straight to your door company known as
Dollar Shave Club for the number one position. As stated by Farhad Manjoo in the article, How
Companies Like Dollar Shave Club Are Reshaping the Retail Landscape, “Dollar Shave Club
raised a total of $163.5 million by the end of 2015 and was acquired by the company Unilever
for $1 billion in 2016” (Manjoo, 2016). The battle between these two giants and other small,
low cost razor companies has led to many benefits for the average consumer such as low cost
razors, easier shopping, greater selection and upgrades to the standard single and double
bladed razors. These industry innovations while convenient for most fail to incorporate the
needs of the entire shaving community, which has led to the establishment of the luxury
shaving industry. The focus of many of these luxury brands is to create the ultimate shaving
experience for minority men by reducing razor bumps and irritation resulting from today’s
multi-blade razors.
Company information
Created by Tristan Walker in 2013, Bevel strives to provide minority men with the tools
they need to get the perfect shave. Bevel chooses to cater to a supposedly untapped market
focusing on African American men who, “disproportionally suffer from razor bumps” (Manjoo,

2. 2016). The values that build the framework of Bevel originate from the parent business known
as Walker and Company. These values include courage, inspiration, respect, judgment, wellness
and above all, loyalty. Bevel seeks to attain the unprecedented loyalty of all its customers for
life by offering quality products and connecting with consumers using unmatched customer
service. Bevel offers its customers a variety of services to improve their Bevel experience such
as advice from skin care professionals, day to day styling tips and recommendations of products
to build a personalized skin care routine. For customers with less shaving experience Bevel
offers tutorials describing how to shave with the grain as well as instructions on how to
assemble the Bevel razor and the process of using it. Along with these helpful guides, Bevel
works to insure that buyers are comfortable purchasing their products by allowing members
ten percent off all products, free shipping, and by enacting a thirty day return policy. Bevel is
also a supporter of the military offering soldiers and other military personnel fifteen percent off
their total order.
The selection of products available on the Bevel website consists of a short list of high
quality shaving and hair care merchandise. Bevel offers six different skin treatment products
such as priming oil, spot corrector, moisturizer, restoring balm, exfoliating toner, shaving cream
and a face wash all within the range of about ten to fifteen dollars. A bundle offered by Bevel is
the skin essentials package containing one bottle of the face wash, one bottle of the
moisturizing gel, and one bottle of the exfoliating toner for around thirty-five dollars. These
products are also offered as part of the separate but related shaving bundles. The shaving
bundles include the simple razor and shave cream package for fifty dollars and the complete
shave kit, for ninety dollars, containing everything you would need for the perfect complete

3. shave. All items sold by Bevel can be purchased individually including the single blade razor,
extra blades and the shave brush. Aside from managing facial hair Bevel also offers products
and services for hair styling and management. Bevel advertises four hair products, which
includes a beard balm for less than fifteen dollars, a trimmer for two hundred dollars, and two
different types of blades each under thirty five dollars. These items can also be found as special
offers where the trimmers are available in a set of three with three extra blades. Bevel also
offers larger shave packages, which includes the complete shave kit with a quantity of three
individual kits and a shave kit incorporating a trimmer.
Bevel pursues perfection in not only their razors but also in their one-on-one customer
relationship. Building a connection with consumers for a lifelong partnership is what Bevel
strives for setting them apart for other razor distributors. By designing products to manage
razor bumps and irritation, they hope improve the shaving experience for all minority men.
Brand Trust and Authority
The founder of Bevel, Tristan Walker, has had several years of experience developing
shaving products for minority men and women; not only is he the owner of Bevel but also the
owner of Walker and Company. Throughout his entire life, he had struggled to find a razor that
cut the way he wanted and because of this, he was inspired to start Walker and Company. Mr.
Walker suffered through the same struggle of razor irritation and decided to expand the razor
selection for minority men and later minority women.
Bevel has been featured in over forty different publications from various news sources.
One of these sources was the New York Times in 2016 where the author stated that, “Bevel

4. intends to become a profitable business by fostering a deep, lifelong connection with an
audience that is getting wealthier and more influential” (Manjoo, 2016). This article discusses
several aspect of the razor industry such as which companies currently hold the top spots and
how these companies choose to design and distribute their products. The Times also talks
about the inspiration for Bevel and what the company’s goals will be for the future. The Wall
Street Journal in 2015 has also published an article over Bevel in which they discussed the
history of Bevel, Walker and Company, and how Tristan Walker started it all. This article also
goes into detail over walker’s childhood and his experiences shopping for razors in the ethnic
section of the drug store. Another news source that gave Bevel coverage was USA Today in
2015. This USA Today publication discussed the partnership between Bevel and Target. It is the
first step towards making their products available to the everyday consumer. A quote from
Tristan Walker states, “Our funding and our relationship with Target sets us on our path to build
the world’s most consumer-centric health and beauty products company for people of
color”(Guynn, 2015).
Over the last several years, Bevel has been able to make valuable partnerships with
large businesses. These partnerships are important because they allow Bevel to expand their
market range and become more accessible to consumers. Bevel is a new entity in the realm of
shaving making these partnerships essential for their survival. The first and likely the most
influential partner Bevel has is Amazon. Amazon is a large online retailer who sells everything
from clothes to food to pet supplies. By collaborating with this company, Bevel has been able to
expand its online reach across the globe and increase its viewership by online consumers.

5. Another business that has collaborated with Bevel is Target, the large chain retail store.
Target is a well-known and respected company in the United States making its name by selling
clothing, electronics, house décor, and health supplies. By collaborating with Target Bevel
becomes better known, more respected and more accessible to consumers.
Competing Site
Bevel has many competitors within the shaving industry. One such competitor is Harry’s,
another men’s shaving company. Harry’s offers very similar products, packages, and
subscription policies to Bevel making them an excellent company to observe and compare data
too. The services offered from Harry’s are similar to Bevel in that they are subscription based.
The goal is to have a customer sign up for products to be delivered repetitively on a set day
each month or every several months. The point of this type of subscription is to reduce the
amount of effort it takes to buy razors by having a set product delivered without having to be
reordered.
They products offered by Harry’s includes shaving supplies, face wash, shower supplies,
hair care, and personal care accessories. The amount of available products is more than twice
what Bevel offers on their website and half the cost. Harry’s offers full shaving kits for only
thirty-five dollars with individual products being sold for less than ten dollars. Similar to Bevel,
Harry’s also offers free shipping and perks to customers who sign up for a shaving monthly
subscription.

6. Quality Content Assessment
Bevel is looking to make an impact within the realm of shaving and in order to do that
their website must contain unique content. Unique content is information that can only be
found at that location. This content would include videos, infographics, and images. It is
important that Bevel use unique content because without it, customers will be less interested
in the site and Google will be less inclined to send visitors their way.
Another important aspect of a website is value content. Value content is content that
benefits that website in some way. This content could be images, economics, infographics,
videos, audio, or charts. It is very important that this information is well designed and unique
otherwise it makes the website appear to be low quality and drives away visitors.
Traffic Analysis
Analytical data is extremely important for a website. This information can determine
how successful that site is at attracting new visitors and keeping past ones. This information
also allows designers to determine what features are drawing visitors in or causing them to lose
interest and leave the site. The amount of visits in a specific period is a fair indicator of success
or failure when it comes to a web site; although it is not the only indicator and other areas must
be taken into consideration. “A visit indicates the total number of visitors to a site; this would
include new visitor as well as returning visitors” (Miller, pg. 259). What would be categorized as
new visits would also fit into the regular visit portion of the analysis. “A new visitor is someone
who had previously been on the site but did not fit within the specific period for the data being
gathered” (Miller, pg. 259). Along with these two types of data a third type is also analyzed. This

7. other type is called unique visitors. A unique visitor is a person who is visiting the site for the
very first time. Unlike the new visit, this individual has not entered the site within the collection
period or any collection previous. When comparing the data for Bevel and Harry’s it is clear that
Harry’s is a step ahead. The six-month average for visits on Bevel’s web site sits at 168.83
thousand visits while Harry’s sits at 1.87 million. Below is a graph which represents the last
twelve months of visitors to visit both Bevel’s and Harry’s web sites.
This drastic difference in visitors could indicate a lack of advertisement from Bevel compared to
Harry’s. It could also mean that Harry’s has a high number of customers coming back to the site.
The more a business puts itself out there the more consumers will see the product and the
more visits you will receive on the web site; whether they are returning or they are visiting for
the first time. Not only does Harry’s beat out Bevel on visits but they also surpass them in
unique visitors with 1.33 million. Bevel only manages to pull in 123.38 thousand within that
same six-month period. The average visits per unique visitor for Bevel rolls in at nearly two
visits which means that customers that had never been on the site before returned to the sit a
second time. Harry’s average visits per unique visitor was also around two which means that

8. even though Harry’s has a higher number of visitors, Bevel and Harry’s have almost the same
number of new visitors returning to each website.
Engagement Analysis
A high bounce rate for a website is typically considered bad but in some cases, having a
high bounce rate is expected. Based on how the Bevel website is organized it is safe to assume
that a high bounce rate would not be preferred. This would be because of the type of product
being sold. “A bounce, usually given as a percentage, is an indicator of the amount of people
who left a site after only visiting one page” (Miller, pg. 262). A high bounce rate can mean a
number of things, the first being that visitors are not interested in the website. This could be
due to overall poor quality, lacking quality content or could be because the site is difficult to
navigate. Other reasons could be that the page takes too long to load or because the page is
bombarded with annoying pop ups and subscription boxes. By analyzing Bevel’s bounce rate,
we will be able to see and compare it to Harry’s bounce rate to determine which site is able to
keep visitors looking for more. After using the tool semrush to calculate each websites bounce
rate, it indicates that over the last six months Bevel’s bounce rate has increased by 6.40%
putting their total bounce rate at 86.10%. Harry’s bounce rate over the last six months has
decreased by 2.63% putting their total bounce rate at 55.72%. Compared to the average
bounce rate of 40-50% and the retail average, which is 20-40%, Bevel has a very high number of
visitors that leave after viewing one page. Bevel’s increased bounce rate may be due to changes
made to the website. This could involve changes in content such as images or information or
could also be due to a change in product selection or costs. The decrease in Harry’s bounce rate
puts it closer to the average but not within it. Using the online tool, Way Back Machine, it can

9. be seen that within the last six months, after the removal of their Christmas specials, Harry’s
added a video background to their home page. This change may have led to increased interest
in the website and therefore an improved bounce rate.
When analyzing a website it is important to be aware that many visitors may stay on the
site for varying amounts of time, therefore when analyzing visit duration it is important to
consider other factors when applying this data. One such factor is the purpose of the website.
The sites being analyzed are both involved in online retail and because of this, it would be best
to have a longer visit duration. In this case longer is better because it means that the consumers
that visit are looking through the products, which increases the chance of making a sale. An
average visit duration is the average amount of time a visitor stays on a website. This data was
collected over a six-month period for a short-term average. The average visit duration for the
Bevel website was slightly over three minutes putting it close to the average of 3.1 minutes. The
average visit duration for Harry’s was over four minutes putting it over the average. This
average, considering it is over the standard, is good in comparison to Bevel, which sits right at
the standard. Bevel’s average is neither good nor bad; it is simply what is typically expected.

10. These results show that customers stay on Harry’s site longer than they stay on Bevel’s. This
result could be due to different types of media presented on each website. Harry’s has adapted
a new video background to grab viewers’ attention as well as grids of various hairstyles that the
users can browse. The flip-flop of visit duration superiority present in the visual above, could be
due to monthly sales on each website or could be from customers re-ordering after their
packages ran out.
Value Content & Engagement Improvement Recommendations
In order to manage a successful website it is important to keep its users engaged. This
must be a priority because if the visitors are not interested in the content then they will leave
and most likely never return. The only way to prevent this from happening is to periodically add
new content to the site. This new content could include infographics, new information and
sales, interactive media such as augmented reality, games or any other additions that could
boost visits and general interest in the website. I believe that by adding a page of beard and
hair styling tutorials Bevel could increase its engagement and as a result decrease its bounce
rate, increase its visits, and increase visit duration. The Gillette website contains one of these
lists that suggests various styles and gives systematic instructions on how to create that style. I
believe this would be a major engagement boost because it would keep visitors attention by
drawing them into the styles and encouraging them to browse and spend more time on the
site.

11. Types of styles
Visual of beard style
If the Bevel website adopted a style page then visitors would be more inclined to move farther
into the site decreasing the number of bounces. This graphic may also increase the number of
return visitors by supplying them with a hair styling resource that they can return to anytime
they please. By implementing the style sheet, it also allows Bevel to recommend specific
products to be used to attain that style such as the various trimmer ends and the beard balm.
Popularity Analysis
The popularity of a website is determined by the number of sites that link to it and the
quality of those sites. It is important that a website be associated with quality links because if
the site are of low quality then it reflects badly on the original site making it less appealing to
visitors. A backlink is a link from another website leading to the main site, which in this case
would be Bevel and Harry’s. Bevel has 19.1 thousand backlinks associated with it and Harry’s
has 109 thousand backlinks associated with it. Based on this data, Harry’s has a drastically
larger number on backlinks from external websites. This may be the case because Harry’s is

12. make active when it comes to advertising making its name more widely known and therefore
more external sites provide them with links.
Referring domains are links from the websites that are creating the backlinks. These
referring domains are extremely valuable because the more sites that link to yours the more
visitors will be sent your way. The number of domains linking to Bevel was around 1,230 and
the domains linking to Harry’s was 1,177. This data indicates that Bevel has a greater number of
domains linking to them. The average number of backlinks for Bevel is 15 links per domain and
the average number of backlinks for Harry’s is 92 links per domain. This means that even
though Bevel has more domains linking to them, those websites contain fewer total backlinks.
This may be the case because of the quality of those links. A high quality website will likely not
contain excessive and repetitive links to the same site while a low quality site such a one used
for blogging may contain a greater number of links. This would be the case if these companies
direct more time to blogging and social media. In this instance, the company doing the blogging
would have linked to themselves and therefore hold little value as a link.
First analyzing the quality of Bevels referring domains, many of them are used for
blogging or product reviews such as Tumblr, the black guy who tips, and libsyn. The review sites
have relatively average authority scores making them an acceptable source but not the best.
Several of the domains link straight from the original Bevel website making them a very poor
domain reference with a less than desirable authority score.

13. The top 10 referring domains for Bevel do not include any restriced domains although this isn’t
to say that they don’t have any. They simply did not score high enough to be included in the top
ten count. Harry’s has a variey of different domains linking to it. As can be seen in the visual
below, the top ten referring domain list includes urls from .com, .net, and .org. The types of
websites reffering to Harry’s are ones used for product reviews, health groups, and blog sites.

14. The sites included in this top ten count overall have a higher authority score average of 44.1
while Bevel had an average authority score of 39. It can be concluded from this information and
the types of referring domain urls that Harry’s has higher quality referring domains.

15. Work Cited
Guynn, J. (2015, September 28). Tristan Walker raises $24M, Target to carry Bevel shaving products.
Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/09/28/tristan-walker-bevel-
funding-target-stores-magic-johnson-andre-iguodala-walker-company-brands/72838894/
Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://gillette.com/en-us/shaving-tips/facial-hair-styles/beard-styles
Manjoo, F. (2016, July 27). How Companies Like Dollar Shave Club Are Reshaping the Retail Landscape.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/technology/these-stores-didnt-develop-
websites-they-started-there.html?_r=2
Miller, B. D. (2014). Above the fold: understanding the principles of successful web site design. Blue Ash,
OH: How Books, an imprint of F W Media.