Two former beauty executives have launched a new online marketplace that uses consumer reviews and feedback to create a personalized shopping experience.
Called Sourcerie, the company describes itself as a community-driven shopping platform that brings together a number of e-commerce stores across brands and retailers. It recommends products or routines for individuals based on user reviews, with it claims, more than 90% accuracy.
The platform claims to take into account individuals’ skin type, skin sensitivity, goals, age, skin tone and conditions. Sourcerie says it uses a data-driven approach to match customer profiles with brands including Dermalogica, Medik8, Pai Skincare, Augustinus Bader, La Roche Posay and Cerave.
In addition to tailored brand and product suggestions, Sourcerie says it also provides expert knowledge, routines and advice for different skin needs.
Sourcerie was co-founded by Kristin Cardwell and Alex Beyer, who pre-seeded £1.8m ($2.3m) before launching.
“Nearly 60% of consumers have had an adverse reaction to a product at some point in time, and over seven in 10 report they are dissatisfied with their current products. We saw a real need for objective, data-driven personalization, based on the trusted experiences of others,” Cardwell says.
The company adds that 93% of customers say that reviews are influential in their shopping decisions.
“Beauty is a massive market, but is falling behind when it comes to tech, and personalizing for beauty has so much more nuance that can only really be captured by scaling community input. The data platform and software we’re building with Sourcerie has so many potential uses for the broader industry, and we’re already in discussions with many of our brand and retailer supplier partners about further potential applications that they can use and take advantage of,” says Beyer.