Feel Unique is an e-commerce platform specializing in beauty products, providing a diverse selection of skincare, makeup, haircare, and fragrances from various brands.
If you’d like to start your own marketplace like Feel Unique, you’re facing a buy vs build decision. So before you decide to build it in-house on top of Spree open-source, consider using Vendo which is a marketplace SaaS. Go live, start selling, iterate.
Build vs Buy a marketplace?
There are several positives to using open-source, like having total control and flexibility in development. But, it’s important to remember that these advantages are not without their costs. Building a complete marketplace solution from scratch is a time-consuming and expensive endeavor, often taking many months or years. This insight comes from our experience with multiple marketplace ventures.
If you haven’t received substantial funding, you are likely to benefit more from an integrated marketplace solution such as Vendo, a recommendation from someone who has spent years charging for marketplace development services.
Back to the Feel Unique marketplace case study
Feel Unique, a prominent UK beauty retailer, has demonstrated remarkable growth and expansion, particularly in the competitive Chinese market. Their journey offers valuable insights into the effective use of multi-channel retail strategies.
In China, Feel Unique expanded its presence across six different sales channels, utilizing a variety of marketing techniques. Key strategies included leveraging KOL (Key Opinion Leader) marketing, affiliate marketing, and the establishment of pop-up stores to increase brand visibility and awareness.
The approach taken by Feel Unique exemplifies the effectiveness of a comprehensive, multi-channel strategy that encompasses standalone e-commerce platforms, marketplace operations, and WeChat mini-programs. This broad-based approach was crucial in maximizing their customer outreach in a diverse and challenging market.
Additionally, Feel unique’s success story is also marked by significant achievements in organic traffic and revenue growth through strategic SEO and content marketing. Since its founding in 2005, Feel Unique has become Europe’s largest online retailer of premium beauty products, offering a range that includes over 500 brands and 18,500 products. Operating in a highly competitive environment, the company faced the challenge of competing for growth against established high street brands.
To overcome this challenge, Feel Unique undertook comprehensive keyword and market research to understand and adapt to the market dynamics fully. The company also engaged in in-depth technical SEO consulting, including regular technical audits and mobile SEO consulting.
Their content marketing efforts were focused on generating high-value coverage and links for the brand. This strategic approach resulted in a remarkable 198% increase in organic traffic and a 41% increase in revenue from organic sources. The first six months of 2015, compared to the same period in 2012, also saw a 356% increase in organic visibility and a 174% increase in pages driving organic traffic.
How to emulate Feel Unique marketplace success?
For a success like Feel Unique’s, it’s recommended to initiate your marketplace quickly, in just a few weeks instead of months. Evaluate the suitability of your products for your audience and refine your customer acquisition strategies based on real-world insights.
Test the market before going all in on building it.
Here’s what you’d be getting with a Vendo free trial:
- Book a marketplace demo call: We’ll set up your demo marketplace and populate it with products, so you could give it a try and start selling in 14 days
- Customize your Storefront: Use the drag & drop page builder or custom CSS
- Onboard Brands: Invite your brands or choose brands from our catalog
- Select Products: Curate products and collections manually or automate it
- Embed products: Make your content, newsletters, social media shoppable
- Get Paid: Get paid as soon as products are shipped by the brands
- End-to-end automation: Brands sync, fulfillment, payouts, invoicing, taxes
When you’ve tried all that and it works, start thinking about building your own, custom-made marketplace project based on Spree Commerce. First, by decoupling the storefront and going headless with Vendo marketplace API, and later with your own backend, if you decide you really need it. Just lift and shift the storefront.
Nobody has to know what’s under the hood, right?
