A new online platform for local designers has been launched, with Dufte Berliner Produkte (DBP) providing a chance for the best of Berlin’s creative classes to sell their wares – think DaWanda only more personal.
The idea behind the platform is to work against the “trend of rubbish products,” according to CEO Jan Schammer, and focus on the background of each product rather than simply the finished item, while supporting local designers. Dufte Berliner Produkte (German for ‘Cool Berlin Products’) was launched last month and is currently only active in the German capital, although there are plans to expand to Hamburg, Cologne and Munich.
Jan founded the company last December after his experience working at two online shops; Home24 and ChicChickClub. He felt that as larger companies, they operated in a mass scale and didn’t pay enough attention to the details and story of their products and designers.
He said: “I want to provide individual and unique products. These are already on the internet but not on one single personalised platform.”
And it was during a trip to a flea market with his mother that the idea for DBP formed in Jan’s mind. With local designers mainly selling products at such flea markets and on their small personal online shops as well as through bigger platforms like DaWanda, Jan decided he could create a better marketplace: “I knew I could provide them my online marketing skills and a platform on which to sell their products. … I am not against DaWanda but I think I can improve on some aspects of DaWanda like the layout and getting more conversions and less returns because of conversion driving presentation.”
What sets DBP apart from its competitor DaWanda is its focus on the personal aspect of its products. It only includes products from designers who the six-strong team has met with personally. The thinking behind this is to bring out the unique selling point of the products; the stories behind them and their creators.
Each product on the website has a story and a description of the quality alongside the regular product details. Some of the designers involved include Ampelmann, Core Tex Kreuzberg, Almano and Holzspielzeug.
The commission-based platform is still in the early stages of development with a database of just 17 designers, although the team has a target list of 1,500 possible additions in Berlin alone. Expansion plans may be some way off, but the style-obsessed German capital is the perfect city to build up the marketplace, with startups like Monoqi and Views leading the way.