Overview
Wella needed to accelerate global digital platform delivery while maintaining strong brand consistency and regional flexibility. emagine established a nearshore Digital Factory in Portugal, providing dedicated engineering teams that enabled faster releases, scalable infrastructure and improved operational autonomy.
The Challenge
Wella is a global beauty company with a strong portfolio of professional and consumer brands distributed across multiple markets.
As the organisation expanded its digital presence, its platforms needed to support both global brand consistency and regional flexibility. Websites, digital services and customer experiences had to reflect each brand’s identity while remaining scalable across markets.
However, delivering these capabilities presented several operational challenges.
A number of the existing systems supporting Wella’s digital ecosystem were built on legacy technologies. These systems made it more difficult to introduce new features quickly and slowed down the process of launching new digital experiences.
At the same time, internal development capacity was limited.
The organisation relied heavily on external development partners, which made it harder to maintain consistent delivery practices and slowed collaboration between product teams and engineers. Managing multiple external vendors also created additional complexity when coordinating global releases.
As demand for new digital platforms increased, these constraints became more visible.
Wella needed to launch new brand websites and introduce digital capabilities at a faster pace. Regional teams required the flexibility to adapt digital experiences to local markets while maintaining alignment with global brand and technology standards.
Achieving this balance required a new operating model.
The organisation needed a development setup capable of supporting global platform delivery while maintaining close collaboration with internal teams. The new structure would also need to provide scalability, allowing Wella to expand development capacity as digital initiatives continued to grow.
In short, Wella required a more integrated delivery capability that could accelerate time-to-market while strengthening long-term platform development.
The Solution
To support Wella’s digital expansion, emagine established a dedicated nearshore Digital Factory in Portugal.
Phase 1: Establishing the Digital Factory
emagine set up a nearshore Digital Factory designed to operate as an integrated extension of Wella’s product and engineering teams.
A team of 35 engineers was assembled, covering backend and frontend development, UX/UI design, QA and cloud infrastructure.
From the outset, the Digital Factory was aligned with Wella’s governance structures, delivery model and technology standards, ensuring seamless collaboration with internal teams.
Phase 2: Building scalable digital platforms
The Digital Factory focused on developing scalable digital platforms capable of supporting multiple brands and markets.
Engineering teams built brand websites using modern technologies including React, Vercel and Shopify, enabling flexible digital experiences while maintaining a consistent technical foundation.
Behind the front end, scalable infrastructure and backend services were implemented using AWS and microservices architecture, ensuring the platform could handle growing traffic and evolving requirements.
Phase 3: Enabling efficient content and service integration
To support global digital operations, the team integrated third-party services and CMS tooling into the platform.
This allowed marketing and content teams to manage digital assets efficiently while maintaining control over brand presentation across markets.
These integrations ensured that both technical and business users could operate effectively within the digital ecosystem.
Phase 4: Scaling delivery through embedded teams
The Digital Factory operated through embedded development squads aligned with Wella’s internal teams, each responsible for specific product areas.
In parallel, emagine supported onboarding and training to ensure teams could operate effectively within Wella’s environment and culture.
This model created a stable, scalable delivery capability, enabling continuous development and global rollout of digital platforms.
Transformation timeline
Phase 1
Establishing the Digital Factory
Phase 2
Building scalable digital platforms
Phase 3
Enabling efficient content and service integration
Phase 4
Scaling delivery through embedded teams
The Results
Faster time-to-market
Dedicated engineering teams working closely with product stakeholders enabled faster delivery of new websites and platform updates. This accelerated release cycles and improved responsiveness to business needs.
Scalable global digital platforms
A modern technology stack enabled platforms to support multiple brands and markets simultaneously. This ensured a consistent global presence while allowing flexibility for local adaptation.
Greater control and operational independence
By establishing its own Digital Factory, Wella reduced reliance on multiple external vendors and gained stronger control over its delivery roadmap. This improved visibility, coordination and decision-making across digital initiatives.
Cost efficiency with stronger collaboration
The nearshore model provided consistent development capacity while reducing the complexity and cost of managing multiple suppliers. At the same time, close integration with internal teams improved collaboration, alignment and overall delivery effectiveness.
Together, these outcomes positioned Wella to continue expanding its digital ecosystem with greater speed, flexibility, and long-term scalability.