Rosehip Seed Oil

: The steps and challenges behind sourcing this miraculous cosmetic from an e-commerce point of view

Abstract

The aim of this work was to source rosehip seed oil in e-commerce, and evaluate the advantages and challenges involved in the process. KoRo Handels GmbH is an e-commerce startup from Berlin in which the core of the business relies on the procurement department, responsible for sourcing and purchasing all the products sold on the website. The aim of KoRo is to shorten the supply chain by skipping retail levels and supplying the best quality and price ratio products in larger packaging.
Rosehip is known for its medical use as a powerful natural medicine to treat pain and inflammation. Also, due to its high content of antioxidants and cranberry resemblance, it is a healthy diet element. It gained room in the cosmetic scenario as well, through the rosehip seed oil. In cosmetics, the cold-pressed and unrefined oil can be used as an anti-inflammatory, moisturizer, antioxidant, and to help in skin healing. In this project, rosehip seed oil was sourced from 21 worldwide suppliers, with a response rate of 57% for sample shipment. The final chosen supplier was from South Africa which, after the quality/price ratio evaluation, could guarantee a final profit margin of around 67%. This indicates that the product released by KoRo has a great chance to be lower-priced than the cheapest selected competitor, evidencing successful sourcing.
Nonetheless, the concept of sourcing products based on shortening the supply is not always translated into short time frames. Factors such as loss of supplier follow-up, long sample testing, and delayed quotations from filler companies were highlighted as the main causes of delays. Thus, as for cosmetics, it can take longer than 12 months to finish a project, it is important to build strategies to shorten the cycle time, which was attempted during this work. Furthermore,
the impact of the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine, summed up with the global economic crisis after the Covid-19 pandemic, resulted in layoffs for most young companies and start-ups, making the continuation of this project uncertain.

Date of Award	16 Sept 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Namur
Supervisor	Yves Geysels (Supervisor)