Ecospa: We Care for a Consistent and Authentic Brand Image

In response to questions regarding the company's activities, development, marketing strategy, and social media presence, the owner of Ecospa, Artur Chaber, provides answers.

Ecospa has been operating in the market since 2006. What were the different stages of development, from entering the market to its current activities?

Initially, we wanted to establish a different company, specifically in the cosmetics industry, offering products for pregnant women. However, at that time, there were no companies in Poland like there are now, where you can buy ingredients such as oil, emulsifier, and a few jars instead of a whole palette. We decided that it might be worth pursuing such a business.

Our beginnings involved selling two products on Allegro, Poland's online marketplace. These products were coconut oil from fresh pulp and fair trade shea butter. We had a very good supplier from Togo – a local community that handmade these ingredients. Regarding packaging, we were far behind as we sold them in ordinary bags, but the products themselves were so great that they spoke for themselves.

Our interest in this topic stemmed from meeting Rita (co-founder) in Canada. The market there was more developed. Rita's mother had been interested in natural skincare for years, and we both had skin problems. I had very sensitive skin, and Rita had eczema issues. Doctors prescribed steroids for her condition, but her mother suggested trying natural remedies. She tried shea butter, then emu oil (which is not a vegan option, but she used it at the time). She also introduced a water filter for use because water in America is heavily chlorinated, and chlorine has irritating and drying effects on the skin. All these steps taken by Rita's mother resulted in her discontinuing medication, and after two to three months, her eczema disappeared. It was surprising that serious problems could be treated with such butters and a filter. As for me, I could never use any cream, but now I have emollients and shea butter, which is a real discovery for me.

When we came back to Poland, we wanted to distribute handmade cosmetics, about which we learned a lot in Canada. It turned out that we didn't need a laboratory for this, just as you cook in the kitchen, you can also make cosmetics. However, we encountered a barrier in the form of the lack of a market for such products in our country. When we needed to buy a jar, it was immediately a palette, or oil – a 28-liter barrel. We decided that we wouldn't start this way. So, we started with just the ingredients, which we tested ourselves and which helped us. That's how we started selling on the auction portal, and after a few months, we decided to open an online store. At that time, e-commerce was just developing, so it was easier to enter the market.

Six months later, we launched a store offering several oils, essential oils, then added hydrosols, butters, and this offer gradually expanded. At the beginning, there were just the two of us. I was full-time, but Rita still worked at LOT as an engineer, and I picked her up from work at 3 PM, and then we worked until late. Those first years required a lot of work and self-effort – from labeling to delivering packages to the post office. As the company grew, we hired our first employee, then more, invested in a larger warehouse, and that's how the company developed.

An important moment came in the 2000s. At that time, banks were quite unfriendly towards entrepreneurs. Fortunately, we came across an American bank that provided a loan based on turnover, and that was a big change for us because when we finally got the money, we could order more goods, and the company began to grow. Currently, we employ about 30 people, have a 500m2 warehouse, and an office. I think we can be classified as a small business. Some employees have been with us for 9 years, so we have gone from a small start-up to a real company.

As owners, we focus on the company's development, and we try to delegate current affairs to the employees. We haven't said the last word yet; there are still many opportunities ahead of us, so I hope that Ecospa will reach more customers. There are other channels where we have not yet appeared. Generally, we focused on the e-commerce market to be primarily online, but I think it's time to appear in brick-and-mortar stores, and maybe we'll cooperate with drugstores.

Who was the target audience initially? What type of cosmetics were the first to appear in the offer?

It was a bit like customers coming to us on their own. We definitely focused on offering natural products. At the same time, another store similar to ours opened, but there they sold everything necessary for making cosmetics. We stuck to this and still do today, that we have in our offer only ingredients accepted by organic certifying bodies. They don't have to have these certificates, but we don't introduce products that are not accepted in natural cosmetics. Generally, naturalness is our fundamental criterion. If, for example, COSMOS or Ecocert consider something natural, we use it, if they don't accept it, we don't include it in the offer. Discussions are ongoing about what is natural and what is not. But it's not up to us to decide, there are scientific committees that debate this. We adhere to the recommendations of the two organizations mentioned earlier.

We ensure that our message is clear. Our experiences confirmed the effectiveness of the products we sold. So at the beginning, they were cosmetics for skincare, and that's what we mainly focus on, and we haven't even entered into color cosmetics yet. We didn't even use too many advertisements because customers willingly came back. There were many referrals; we often received emails that someone had told their friends about our company and our offer because they were satisfied with us. That's how we organically grew in the first few years. I think the group oriented towards natural skincare seeks us out, finds us, and it fits together very well.

What are the differentiators of your company? What makes them choose Ecospa products?

We have certainly always cared about aesthetics. DIY cosmetics is a specific industry. For the most part, we sell the ingredients themselves. On the other hand, we care about aesthetics, both in terms of the quality of the raw material and the appearance of the product itself. Maybe the appearance is not the most important thing in a cosmetic, but when it comes to perception itself, it is the first thing that catches the eye. Consistent branding, nicely chosen and durable packaging, and in terms of sheer value, transparency. We try to have good descriptions of where the product comes from, what it is for, how to use it.

We go to great lengths to ensure we have good quality ingredients. It doesn't work like that - you pick one supplier and buy from them for years. Unfortunately, quality and price change. There are a lot of factors, and we try to keep an eye on that, to keep the standard of the ingredients, while finding affordable raw materials. Some are irreplaceable because they are found in one place. Ghassoul clay deposits are only found in Morocco and only a few companies import it from there, as is argan oil, which also comes from Morocco and only France has the privilege of being able to sell it.

Among our differentiators, I would therefore point to aesthetics, quality and favourable prices. Admittedly, voices vary: some say we are expensive, others say cheap. We try to keep our prices competitive, but at a similar level to the DIY market.

As another element, I would mention the free expert support. The customer is never left on their own - they can count on us to help them: whether it's in choosing beauty products for their care or in making the cosmetics themselves. There are two paths. DIY can be care with the ingredients themselves. You don't have to make a cosmetic, just use pure oil, hydrolate or butter, which work very well. The second option is skincare with products created according to a specific recipe. For this we have tutorials, articles and our support and a very large recipe base.

The leitmotif of the brand is the slogan: Do It Yourself. The customer can compose the cosmetic for himself. What exactly does the creation of a personalised formula involve?

Firstly, you need to get to know yourself. Secondly, you need to seek advice from our employees and look at the recipe database, which describes how to prepare the cosmetic step by step.

Over the past few years, several of our employees have created these recipes. We have gone a long way in testing them all. The vast majority of them have been tested and checked for microbiological purity. Unfortunately, this is not standard in the industry and you can find recipes on some sites that do not come out or have not been verified. We have made this effort to create a base that guarantees effectiveness.

You can also find a blog on the Ecospa website. Has it been maintained since the company's inception? Who is behind the published content?

The blog was there from the beginning because we needed to write at least a few 'How to' articles, i.e. how to make shampoo or body butter, for example. Later on, we also added articles about our ingredients, because I remember that in the beginning of our business there were calls with comments that our butter was spoiled because it was green and smelled strange. This was because customers were used to white, refined ones. Then I had to explain that this is made from nuts, produces such a smell and not a different one, and is grey-green in colour. This is why we wrote articles explaining why this is so and where it comes from. Later on, we looked into marketing and positioning to make these phrases more visible so that we could reach our customers.

Today, the published content is prepared for us by experts. We work with outsiders who have knowledge in this field. We have two colleagues in the company who are cosmetologists and are also involved in cosmetic formulation. Once the article is written, they still review it for compliance with the art and correctness in terms of content.

You also use social media to promote your brand. Do you operate according to a specific marketing strategy or do you publish content rather spontaneously?

It is rather deliberate. Social media is a major PR element for small businesses. Nowadays most people, especially younger customers, use social media. I don't see a direct link to sales, whereas it is a contact to be reminded, to be shown, to be interested. We have a strategy for this. We have had different ideas or directions, but in general we focus on showing that making cosmetics is not difficult. At first glance, it seems like a big challenge to many customers or clients. However, it is nothing difficult. Once you've made that first cosmetic, there's this reaction of, "Oh, so much? Already done?" :) Often you just need to measure well, weigh out, mix the ingredients and pour. It's more advanced to make creams, because that requires heating and combining the ingredients. Although in my opinion, making cosmetics at home is no more difficult than cooking.

What kind of reception do you face on social media? Does heckling happen?

The reception is definitely positive. With us, there is relatively little heckling, and this is due to the fact that we do not preach radical slogans and questionable content. Because the hate sometimes doesn't come out of nowhere either. Sometimes companies or influencers consciously use the element of opportunity that something needs to be uploaded to heat up the atmosphere. We check everything beforehand, we don't write, for example, to use raspberry seed oil in the sun because it protects against UV radiation. We don't do that because we know it has no such properties. These are myths that circulate on the web. Customers appreciate that we try to be rational and based on available and up-to-date scientific knowledge.

We also care a lot about aesthetics and our posts and testimonials are visually appealing. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Rita and I like this style. We build the character of the business as a result. I think this is convincing to female clients and customers. It's always good to look at something pretty rather than ugly if we have a choice. And when it is followed by interesting and useful content, all the more so.

Do you happen to have already established a partnership with influencers?

This is where we have a lot of work to do. We have collaborated with several influencers, such as Alina Rose from Krakow. It was a very fruitful and enjoyable collaboration - we would love to do more collaborations. We get a lot of collaboration offers from budding profiles and girls who are just starting out, but we try to approach it consciously and sensibly. It's important where we appear, whether these people are running their accounts in a reliable way. On the one hand, it is a barter exchange, but on the other hand, there is the risk that the quality of the content published is not always maintained.

What is the long-term goal of the business?

The long-term goal would be to enter foreign markets. For the time being, we will focus on entering other channels, i.e. traditional channels in addition to e-commerce, but ultimately we would like to enter the international market. This will, of course, involve platform changes and support for other languages. We have family ties to Canada, so it is possible that we will open a shop in the US market in the near future. I would say immodestly that we don't stand out from the competition in terms of quality and offering. There are two big international players, so these are companies outside our business reach, but we have ambitions to sell our products outside our country.

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