Designs

Originality and creativity of the idea

Cosmetics NORD, a subsidiary of MADARA Cosmetics, has been providing contract manufacturing (or private label) services for several years, as its product formulas and production facilities and equipment are world-class, and there is a large demand for the production of high-quality organic products. In recent years, there was a growing number of requests for smaller order volumes which we could not satisfy with the existing technological capabilities. On average, contract manufacturing orders start at 1 000 units. After researching the market, we realized that there is practically no one offering such a service so we began work to create a new process where we can handle personalized orders of any size.

Definition of the problem and the relevance of the applied solutions

Market: Millions of skin care enthusiasts and professionals around the world are looking for ways to create a sustainable skin care product line and become cosmetic entrepreneurs. The problem: The current supply of contract manufacturing services is not suited for their needs. It is suited only for large companies that have the capacity to invest several tens of thousands to start a business. The main problems in the private label cosmetics segment are: high minimum order volume, long manufacturing time, complicated overall process and an archaic system that is hard to access. Small/medium enterprises cannot afford to order large volumes because they have limited resources and expertise. Dropshipping isn't even really possible either. Solution: An online platform for ordering organic cosmetic products starting from 1 unit with the possibility to customize product design and create images of the product, as well as integration with e-commerce platforms.

Co-creation, stakeholder involvement and cooperation during the realisation process

Overall, the development experience has been completely foreign and new to all parties. We were fortunate to have a strong in-house design and product team which is the reason we were able to implement this idea. Core Product Management Team (in-house): Product management team manager – Anete Vabule, digital product manager – Kristaps Birmanis, lead designer – Arturs Hmeļovs, technical designer – Linda Pretkalniņa

Functionality and technological solutions

The platform can be divided into 3 parts: 1. Marketing sections (marketing landing pages) 2. Self-service platform: -> Option to order (minimum order amount is 1 unit), automated order fulfilment -> (in development) Dropshipping -> Mock-up image creator -> Easy-to-use templates and styles -> Design service -> Drag&drop design studio -> Educational content 3. Printing system.

Aesthetics and other experiential dimensions

The overall UX/UI is designed to meet the needs of our users and continues to be developed every week. The design and user flow is quite simple because we created it according to our principle of "less is more" and we don't add new features (and even delete old features) if users don’t use them.

Economic significance, sustainability and circularity

SELFNAMED.COM aims to promote the principles of circular economy and sustainability in the cosmetic industry and make organic certified cosmetic products more accessible throughout Europe, the UK and USA. This is achieved by creating eco-friendly cosmetic products that are available on a print on demand basis. With fast turnaround times and low minimum order quantities, the platform makes sustainable skin care products more affordable and reduces overproduction. The mock-up image creator allows users to automatically insert customer designs into product images, eliminating the need to print samples and organize photo shoots, thereby reducing wasted resources and unnecessary costs.

Social relevance, inclusion, availability and accessibility

Since the accessibility of our service is unlimited, we think the product is very inclusive.

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