How Skin First Cosmetics Achieved 66% Growth with Shopify Plus

Skin First Cosmetics Scales with Shopify Plus

Skin First Cosmetics launched as a passion project by Dr. Maria Pia Priore while she was still completing her studies. She spotted a gap in how skincare information was shared online and built a community that trusted her scientific approach. By June 2019, the first Shopify store went live and quickly triggered sales, validating the demand. However, rapid fan growth soon tested manual workflows and threatened user experience during peak moments like Black Friday.

Tackling Growing Pains

Between 2020 and 2021, the company saw an explosion in order volume. Their original setup couldn't keep up with peaks, leading to stock mismatches and slow checkout processes. They relied on external agencies for CRM tasks and stock alerts, driving up costs and slowing turnaround. As thousands of new customers signed up, Skin First needed a tech stack that would let them act fast without constant developer support.

Upgrading to Shopify Plus

On Black Friday 2020, Skin First migrated to Shopify Plus. The move cut transaction fees and unlocked advanced features. With a fully independent site, the team could customize the checkout flow to handle surges. They chose Shopify Flow to automate tagging, order notifications, and CRM integration. Stock alerts for large orders helped them reorder in time and reduced fraud attempts. Tags synced seamlessly with email marketing tools for segmented campaigns.

Bridging Online and Offline Sales

In early 2022, Skin First opened its first temporary pop-up stores. Utilizing Shopify POS meant the same catalog, promotions, and customer profiles ran both online and in person. They accepted digital and cash payments through Shopify Payments and Shopify Pay—already used by 13% of their buyers online. Portable card readers and integrated scripts displaying shipping options by postal code made setup painless. The Expansion Store feature gave them a sandbox to test apps and logistics in real time, without touching their live site.

Measurable Impact

Just one year after moving to Shopify Plus, Skin First grew revenue from €3M to €5M, a 66% increase. Site traffic jumped by 24%, returning customers made up 62% of orders, and offline pop-ups delivered 10% of total sales within weeks of launch. Skin First now operates autonomously, making updates and running campaigns without external support, which has cut overhead and freed the team to focus on product innovation.

Key Learnings

Skin First Cosmetics shows what’s possible when a fast-growing brand moves to a platform built for scale. Automating workflows with Shopify Flow, unifying channels with Shopify POS, and validating new ideas in a test store all contributed to rapid, controlled growth. By retaining control and sharing trust-worthy science, this team turned a student side project into a thriving skincare business.