Research assignment for a Web Publishing class on the brand GilletteVenus.com.

1. Gillette Venus Content & Traffic Analysis
Industry Overview
The personal care industry is full of competition which is prompting companies to
fight for market dominance. Popular brand names such as MyBillie, Harry’s, Dollar
Shave Club, and our client Gillette Venus are all popularizing a new method of business
called the: direct to consumer model With the emergence of direct to consumer (DTC) in
the personal brand industry, specifically with razors, it has quickly became a battle for
customer attention.
In a time where people no longer want to go grocery shopping, Amazon can
deliver anything you want in two days, and with modern technology at our fingertips. It
makes sense that personal care and the DTC business method fit together so well.
Especially if the brands can make their products appealing enough for customers to
continue using them over time rather than other brands. Enter in all the big players
mentioned above and you have an interesting mix of brands with differing types of
backgrounds and focuses. Looking at Gillette Venus, one can see current success but
also a path for growth in regards to their website content and traffic metrics.
Company Information
As stated above, Gillette Venus is a direct-to-consumer women’s razor blade
company. Our parent company, Proctor and Gamble, has long been a force to be
reckoned with and according to their website, they have been around for over 150 years
(us.pg.com/pg-history). With a tried and tested company backing them, Gillette Venus is
in excellent hands for growth to be spurred on and financial goals to be met by

2. improving their web publishing methods. We are all about promoting shaving as your
skin deserves and thus we offer a variety of shaving products to compliment your
needs.
Our shaving products can be purchased on GilletteVenus.com under the ‘Design
Your Plan’ page. Gillette Venus offers two options of razors packages for consumers,
the ‘Starter Kit’ and the ‘Customize Your Plan’ option.
The ‘Starter Kit’ comes in three different color options: mint, green, and pink and
all are $7.00 (gillettevenus.com, starter kit). Next customers choose the frequency of
their deliveries based on their shaving habits, they can select 1, 2, or 3 month delivery
options. All future cartridge refills cost $15.00 and will come with a amount respective to
the frequency of shaving that you chose.
The ‘Customize Your Plan’ option allows consumers to select different
colors/types of handles and shaving cartridges. For example, one option we provide is
their ComfortGlide Plus Olay Coconut shaving head. Which costs the consumer an
extra $23.00 per month but is listed that it provides smoother shaves. Another example
is the extra handle option ‘Platinum’, which comes in at an extra $2.00 a month but
looks and feels more exclusive along with a sturdier material.
To allow consumers the complete shaving experience, the final stage of the
ordering process allows them to purchase accessories such as shaving cream, travel
handles, and lotions. The accessories are available to both the ‘Starter Kit’ and the
‘Customize Your Plan’ options. To finalize their orders customers can simply click the

3. cart option located in the navigation bar of the website and input their card information
and shipping address.
Brand Trust & Authority
Gillette Venus does indeed portray themselves as an authority in the personal
care industry. This is made evident for a variety of reasons, first is their involvement in
not only distributing razors but also the recycling process too. Gillette has been around
for over 115 years which shows how established we are as a brand. Even with an
established history we are still making history to, by breaking ground and partnering
with TerraCycle. Kick starting a new recycling campaign to help reduce landfill mass
and help with saving the Earth. By doing this it not only encourages consumers to have
a greater appreciation for pro Earth efforts but also allows our consumers to earn points
to donate to a favored non-profit or charity. (“News Release,” 2019)
When looking through Gillette’s 2019 press releases it is made very evident that
the brand establishes its presence as an authority via community efforts. Repeatedly
throughout 2019, Gillette Venus sent kits of personal care items, including razors, to
communities affected by the Ohioan tornadoes, Nebraskan floods, or even getting Tom
Brady to partner with a local Boston charity. (“News,” 2020) By establishing themselves
in the media as charitable, Gillette Venus has therefore proven themselves capable of
freely giving away their products. Which can only be done by brands with disposable
income that is earned by being an authority in the industry.
A quick Google keyword browse also reveals that GilletteVenus is covered by
well established media outlets such as CNET, AdAge, AdWeek, FoxNews, and many

4. others. With this amount of exposure it is obvious that our brand GilletteVenus is
regarded as an authority within the personal care industry as reputable news
contributors are talking about us.
Unfortunately, our brand lacks established voices reviewing our products on our
personal webpage. There are plenty of customer experience reviews from people all
over the United States and we are quick to show off our rewards from voices such as
Allure. (“Design Your Plan, 2020) But this does not fill the void that exists within our
‘reviews section’ and can only be fixed by reputable voices reviewing our products and
then us showcasing their opinions on our website.
Competing Site
MyBillie.com is a strong competing brand in the women’s personal care industry
and a rival of our brand GilletteVenus. According to their ‘About’ page on their website,
MyBillie is dedicated to providing a cheaper yet enjoyable shaving experience for
females. According to them, the industry is heavily catered towards males and as a
brand they want to expose the pink tax, which is a special tax for a variety of areas
including certain feminine products, dry cleaning, and even fashion. (“About,” 2020)
With the emphasis placed on female empowerment within the personal care industry,
MyBillie does take it a step further with their brand. They donate 1% of all their profits to
select female organizations and currently they are donating to Every Mother Counts. An
organization dedicated to providing resources to those giving birth around the world.
(“MeshDesign,” 2020)

5. After a quick browse through the competing website there are similarities and
differences between the scope of offerings. The main difference between the offerings
is that MyBillie only offers their customers the option of the starter kit, whereas our
brand gives the consumers a wide array of customization tools for their razors.
Since we both offer a ‘starters kit’, lets compare the two. MyBillie starts their kit at
$9.00 and includes the razor handle, two 5 blade cartridges, and a magnetic holder to
house the entire razor body. Also listed on their ‘starter kit’ is the reassurance to their
customers that they will ship out replacement cartridges for $9.00 when needed. (“Get
Started”, 2020) MyBillie also offers a variety of accessories for their customers such as
shaving cream, body wash, and body lotion. Gillette Venus’s ‘starter kit’ begins at $7.00
and then one would add additional cost if accessories are included. GilletteVenus wins
in the cheaper starter kit category, and both companies offer four cartridges for refills.
Similarly both companies allow for the optimization for customers to select how often
they shave which therefore influences how often cartridges come in the mail, which is a
nice touch from both sides.
Overall, both brands offer a similar variety of products for customers. The main
difference is that GilletteVenus does offer more customization from the top down as
customers can do the ‘starter kit’ or completely personalize the process. Whereas,
MyBillie only offers the ‘starter kit’ which limits the consumers in options, but they do
include the magnetic clip which for certain youtubers was a very attractive feature.
(Youtube, 2018)

6. Upon further investigation of MyBillie’s ownership status, I found some very
intriguing information. According to Fox Business, Proctor and Gamble is looking to add
MyBillie to their extensive list of personal care brands. (“Proctor and Gamble,” 2020)
Unfortunately there is no official statement from MyBillie or Proctor and Gamble to verify
this report from Fox Business. Although, if this article is true then that would make
MyBillie and GilletteVenus sister companies rather than direct competitors.
Quality Content Assessment
Content Overview:
The home page of GilletteVenus.com reveals to the viewer a picture of two
females smiling big with hard to read overlaid text and an actionable button that
automatically scrolls the viewer below the fold to a ‘get started’ section. Also on the
home page are both customer text reviews and two badges of certificates our brand has
won from Allure and Total Beauty.
If the viewer clicks on the ‘design your plan - choose your starter kit’ web page. It
opens to reveal product photography and a brief text description of the various razor
options. (gillettevenus.com, starter kit) Both the ‘Review’ and ‘Help’ pages contain
repetitive content as they both only include photographs and text descriptions. Which for
a customer browsing on our page is less than ideal.
The ‘About Us’ page contains the most engaging content as there are multiple
videos available for the viewers to watch. Which includes a motivational brand video at
the top and two video testimonies beneath the fold. At the bottom of the page there are

7. brief text boxes and some photos showcasing females celebrating their skin. (“About
Gillette Venus,” 2020)
Value-Added Content:
Value added content is defined as the content that can not be found anywhere
else on the internet and keep
the customer on our website
longer. Quite frankly there is
a serious lack of value added
content on our brand’s site.
The most consistent content
is the photography, but the
repetitiveness of it on every
page brings down the value of the content overall. Over archingly the videos on the
‘About Us’ page add the most value to the viewers, as they personalize the brand to a
specific user. In an age where Millenials are frequently demanding brands to have an
image or personality, these videos provide that want in a creative way.
Visit Analysis
August 2019 - January 2020 Gillette Venus MyBillie
6-Month Average visits 146.6 k 471 k
6-Month Average Unique Visitors 135.18 k 378 k
Avg. Visits per unique visitor 1.08 1.25

8. Definitions:
Gillette Venus has had an average of 146,000 monthly visitors and 135,000 of
those visitors were unique visitors. When one divides average visits by unique visitors
the result is 1.08 average visits per unique visitors.
Visitors are the total number of entries into the website and unique visitors are
the amount of devices that have accessed the website. Visits per unique visitors is an
average of the number of people that use multiple devices to access our webpage.
Comparison:
As clearly displayed by the chart above, once again, mybillie.com holds the
higher numbers in comparison to our brand. They have three times more average
monthly visits, 2.8 times more average unique visitors, and .17 times more visits per
unique visitor. With these higher numbers MyBillie does possess a larger share of the
market’s visitors.
Returning Visitors:’
Gillette Venus is most definitely receiving returning visitors as the comparison
between us and MyBillie is very close in averages. Even though mybillie.com has a
greater number of visitors, their conversion is still only .17 times more than Gillette
Venus. This means that even though MyBillie has a greater audience, Gillette still stays
competitive with it’s returning visitors as we are only slightly lower in average visits per
unique visitor in comparison to MyBillie. This is good for the site as Gillette can still be a
threat to MyBillie even though their numbers trump ours in the long run.

9. Engagement Analysis
-------------- Gillettevenus.com Mybillie.com Web Averages
Bounce Rate % 76.35% 64.23 % 20 - 40 %
Pages Per Visit 1.74 pages 3.14 pages 4.6 pages
Average Visit Duration 1.05 minutes 2.52 minutes 3.1 minutes
Bounce Rate:
The definition of bounce rate is the number of website visitors that stay on one
page and then exit the site. It does not refer to the amount of time spent on one page,
only the fact that one page was opened on the site.
In comparison to mybillie.com our brand has a 12% higher bounce rate. The
cause of this could be correlated to mybillie’s content engagement on their webpage.
Mybillie uses videos, graphics, and pictures to engage with the visitors in a unique way
whereas our brand only does pictures well with a few videos too.
When a potential customer comes to our site they see a wide variety of pictures
but there is very little value added content on each page to keep them interested. For
example, the home page of the site contains text, pictures, and a scrolling box of
customer reviews and a few awards (pictured below). This screen shot also represents
the repetitive content, text and
pictures, throughout the entirety
of the website. A website full of
basic content will only increase
the bounce rate as it does not

10. draw visitors further into the site. Our brand needs to understand that a bounce rate is
directly tied to the content on the website and in order for our rate to go down, we must
engage our visitors in a unique way.
Pages Per Visit:
The definition of pages per visit is the number of web pages within a website that
a visitor clicks on. Unfortunately the 6 month average is not available, so the only
number I could access was the 1.74 for Gillette Venus and 3.14 for myBillie.
Our average number of visits, 1.74, is low to the overall average pages per visit
which is 4.6. Clearly there is something flawed in our website’s content that is not
enticing visitors to further explore. As mentioned above, myBillie does an excellent job
of engaging the visitors in a unique way. When a visitor clicks on their ‘Reviews’ page
they are immediately met with bright colors, customer reviews, and a large amount of
reputable news outlet’s quotes regarding their products. (“Reviews,” Mybillie.com) In
comparison to our ‘Reviews’ page, there are similar elements to mybillie.com, but we
have repeated awards and quotes from the home page which does not provide unique
content for the user to engage with
(pictured here to the right).
Average Visit Duration:
The definition of average
visit duration is the average length of time that a visitor stays on your website. Our
brand’s average visit duration was 1 minute and 5 seconds which in comparison to the

11. overall average is low by 1 minute and 56 seconds. Mybillie’s average visit duration was
2 minutes and 52 seconds which is more than double than our brand’s numbers.
Our duration for visits is very poor unfortunately. A few conclusions that I come to
as to why our numbers our poor involve a variety of factors. The main factor being we
seriously lack valuable content that will engage the visitors and will eventually lead to
sales. A section of solid valuable content is the ‘Help’ page but that does not drive sales
it only gives information and after all, we are
a business that needs to make a profit.
(“Help,” 2020) Our spread of valuable
content is too thin across our website and
visitors notice it and are not enticed to stay
longer than a minute plus a few seconds.
Another factor influencing our low numbers is our brand’s image overall. Mybillie
is driving higher traffic numbers partly because they are a new, hip, and savvy company
that markets to a younger audience very effectively.
Value Content & Engagement Improvement Recommendation:
One meaningful piece of content that I believe will improve our site’s engagement
metrics is live purchase updates. A simple way to engage users, lower the bounce rate,
raise visit duration, and drive multi-page visits is to implement this method. I follow a lot
of Christian clothing brands and one in particular, Native Supply, implements this
method to their benefit. To visually display it, here is a screenshot below:

12. (Zoomed in to show detailed information)
It details live updates of other customer’s
purchases with information such as name, location, and the specific item purchased. If
the visitor clicks on the product it brings them to the product display page and gives
options for buying it. (“Uniforms for the Kingdom’s Citizen, 2020)
Simply replace the clothing items with Gillette Venus’ product offerings and voila
a new, engaging, and quality content option is created. For example, “Chelle H. from
Kansas City, United States purchased Smooth Original Pink, 10 minute(s) ago.” A
visitor could easily click/tap on the conveniently located pop up at the bottom of the
page and discover new combinations or learn more about the product offerings.
This method effectively lowers bounce rates as customers will be enticed to click
out of curiosity, it raises session duration as visitors will be encouraged to search

13. through the site, and by clicking on products it automatically increases multi page
sessions.
Popularity Analysis
Backlinks/Domains Total Backlinks No. of Referring Domains Average No. of
Backlinks per Domain
gillettevenus.com 35.4 k 2.2 k 16.09 k
mybillie.com 11.7 k 1.5 k 7.8 k
Definitions:
In this category Gillette Venus contains the higher numbers and averages of
backlinks and domains. We have a total of 35,400 backlinks with 2,200 total referring
domains whereas mybillie.com has 11,700 backlinks with 1,500 total referring domains.
The average referring domains for Gillette Venus is 16,090 and for mybillie.com the
average is 7,080.
Backlinks refer to the total number of links from other websites that are linking to
Gillettevenus.com whereas the number of referring domains is a website responsible for
hosting those back links.
Analysis of Link Quantity:
In regards to how it compares between the two competing brands, Gillette has
more backlinks but MyBillie is creeping up on the number of referring domains. In other
words, Gillette Venus is going down and MyBillie is going up in overall back link
performance as more referring domains means more backlinks will also be increasing
as well.

14. Analysis of Link Quality:
After assessing the top 10 referring domains of GilletteVenus.com it is obvious
why we are slowly losing to MyBillie in the popularity game. There are only three
referring domains that were not affiliated to Gillette Venus in some way out of the top
ten. Our brand relies heavily on our own sister sites such as gillettevenus.ru,
gillettevenus.pl, and gillettevenus.au which unfortunately are just the same website but
with their respective countries around the world.
When using Majestic.com to find a few referring domains for mybillie.com it was
difficult to interpret what they called anchor text under the referring domains section.
Although, listed underneath that headline were the names: billie, project body hair, and
many more mybillie.com domains. Interestingly enough both GilletteVenus and MyBillie
rely heavily on backlinks from their own personal referring domains. Which to me seems
flawed as Google can quickly filter through this simple get a round trick and filter them
away. (“Insight for MyBillie,” 2020)
An area that our brand Gillette Venus could grow in is partnering with more
domains such as .edu’s or .gov’s. Although difficult to do, Google highly prizes these
domains and would heavily reward our brand with the exposure it deserves. MyBillie
should continue to backlink its own domains so that our brand Gillette Venus can excel
when it comes to popularity.

15. Works Cited
“About Gillette Venus.” ​Venus​, 9 Feb. 2020, ​www.gillettevenus.com/en-us/why-venus/​.
“About.” ​Billie​, 5 Feb. 2020, mybillie.com/pages/about.
“Brands.” ​Procter & Gamble Company​, us.pg.com/pg-history/.
“Design Your Plan.” ​Starter Kit​,
www.gillettevenus.com/en-us/womens-razors-subscriptions/starter-kits​.
“Design Your Plan.” ​Venus​, ​www.gillettevenus.com/en-us/awards-and-reviews/​.
“Get Started.” ​Billie​, 5 Feb. 2020, mybillie.com/pages/get-started#step1.
“Help” ​Learn How to Shave​, 10 Feb. 2020,
www.gillettevenus.com/en-us/womens-shaving-guide/​.
“Insight for Mybillie.com.” ​Site Explorer - Mybillie.com - Summary​, 10 Feb. 2020,
majestic.com/reports/site-explorer?q=mybillie.com&oq=mybillie.com&IndexDataSource=
F.
Meshdesign. “Our Approach: Every Mother Counts (EMC): Improving Maternal Health.”
Every Mother Counts (EMC) | Improving Maternal Health​, 5 Feb. 2020,
“News Release.” ​Gillette and TerraCycle Partner to Make All Razors Nationally Recyclable |
P&G News | Events, Multimedia, Public Relations​,
news.pg.com/press-release/pg-corporate-announcements/gillette-and-terracycle-partner-
make-all-razors-nationally-.
“News.” ​| P&G News | Events, Multimedia, Public Relations​, 2 Feb. 2020,
news.pg.com/search/s/venus?f[0]=ds_created:[2019-01-01T00:00:00Z TO
2020-01-01T00:00:00Z].
“Proctor & Gamble Acquires Billie, a Women's Shaving Startup Millennials, Gen Z Love.”
Fox Business​, Fox Business, 9 Jan. 2020,
www.foxbusiness.com/money/proctor-gamble-acquires-billie-womens-shaving-startup-mi
llennials-gen-z​.
“Reviews.” ​Billie​, 10 Feb. 2020, mybillie.com/pages/reviews.
“Uniforms for the Kingdom Citizen.” ​Native Supply​,
native.supply/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAm4TyBRDgARIsAOU75srfWyGGSyndFqYcZVisDQ5hfC
NOL60EB4GWCGQCsrmzTMdWTjtWoMEaArrPEALw_wcB.