Curology: The Future of Personalized Skincare

Founded in 2014 by Dr. David Lortscher, Curology has led the way in making personalized, clinically-proven skin care accessible in all 50 states. Customers have access to licensed dermatologist providers who develop custom solutions. Since its inception, Curology has grown into a nationally recognized brand with wholesale and digital distribution, and a presence in over 1800 Target stores.

Despite tremendous success with the prescription model, Curology sought to expand the non-prescription business both online and offline. The team at Curology approached Assemble to identify the best technologies to launch a DTC storefront and integrate it with their existing ERP and SSO/customer management tools. Speed and efficiency were critical to meet the “go-live” target date of 12 weeks from the first introduction. 

Listen and Learn

In January 2023, Curology launched an assortment of non-prescription products in 1800 Target stores. Based on early success, the Curology team wanted to offer customers a similar range of products online to drive incremental revenue and acquire new customers. They needed a new DTC site with seamless integration into the existing storefront. The management team at Curology was in the process of identifying an e-commerce platform for their DTC storefront. 

Curology’s existing storefront was a bespoke build designed to cater to the specific needs of its subscription business. In order to expand beyond subscriptions and into a DTC product offering, Curology needed an established e-commerce platform like BigCommerce, and an experienced Solutions Integrator (SI) like Assemble to get the work done. The combination of a technology solution plus experienced thought partners would enable them to begin selling DTC on a much shorter and more cost-efficient timeline than taking the same approach used to build their original Subscription storefront.

Curology had several important objectives in building the new DTC site: 

1. Quick checkout without disruption to existing customer accounts 
2. Seamless new customer acquisition journey through the DTC channel with an option to migrate to subscriptions easily 
3. Integrated and efficient fulfillment processes 
4. Consolidated inventory view across warehouses 

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The goal was to create a seamless brand experience across points of distribution, eliminate friction in the customer experience, and scale the direct-to-consumer business. To accomplish this, Assemble recommended a custom connector between the e-commerce platform and the existing bespoke subscription site and a custom integration with a large ERP.

Once the platform was selected, Assemble got to work creating wireframes and high-fidelity mockups of the storefront to ensure a high-performing customer experience. Assemble began working with internal technology teams at Curology to understand the capabilities of their customer account infrastructure and ensure orders could be fulfilled by the same teams with shared inventory from the subscription storefront. As a result, Curology did not have to completely change its existing fulfillment centers or personnel to support the new DTC Customer Experience. 

To enable long-term growth, Assemble built a custom integration between BigCommerce and their existing internal customer and product data systems. The integration was built to be performant, operate seamlessly with their existing site, and allow customers to shop for skincare how and where they prefer on any device. 

The Curology customer was at the heart of every decision made and highlighted the opportunities to update the customer experience and improve the technical infrastructure to enable the long-term growth and success of Curology.

Outcome

In just 12 weeks from the initial meeting, we delivered a DTC website for non-prescription products on BigCommerce, allowing the Curology team to reach new customers and drive increased incremental revenue. All of this was made possible while utilizing existing internal systems and managing direct costs while improving operational efficiency. 

Assemble continues to partner with Curology, and stakeholders across both companies recognize the opportunities that come with their new agility and efficiency.