The article is contributed by Nilesh Ghule, Co-founder and CEO, TruckBhejo.
Over the last two years, primarily because of the pandemic, and deeper internet and mobile phone penetration there is an unprecedented surge in online shopping. As a result, the e-commerce market has boomed and is estimated to reach USD 200 bn by 2026, according to Inc42’s e-commerce report. It has also led to the growing popularity of the Direct to Consumer (D2C) business model.
Alongside this boom, a Mordor Intelligence report underlines that driven by the growth of manufacturing, FMCG, retail, and e-commerce, the Indian Third-Party Logistics (3PL) market is expected to register a CAGR of over 11.5% during the forecast period of 2020-2025.
This growing synergy between D2C brands and logistics providers is driven by the need for greater efficiency and speed with customers setting delivery deadlines that are shrinking every day, from 24 hours to 10 minutes. ‘Express Deliveries’ is the buzzword today, and with this in mind, Indian businesses, like their western counterparts, are slowly making the transition from horizontal to vertical integration.
Bottom-line over top-line
Earlier, the business strategy favoured the takeover of rival companies and the development of in-house facilities to expand in size and assert market dominance. Today, with the bottom line taking precedence over the top-line, and efficiency outscoring effectiveness, D2C brands are seeking third-party services to combat competition.
D2C as a business model relies on three important aspects namely core product, online selling experience, and offline fulfilment experience. It is in the third, the last-mile delivery stage, that tech-based logistics platforms are coming into play with the guarantee of delivering products in the most time and cost-effective manner through increased digitization and automation.
Tech-ing the shortcut
Just like robotics and sensors have streamlined operations in the warehouse, drones and driverless EVs could well revolutionize e-commerce supply chains in the future. For now, AI-driven tools like the Internet of Things (IoT), advanced algorithms, blockchain, and data analytics can be incorporated into operations to optimize routes, circumvent delays, and reduce empty miles.
TruckBhejo has, in just five years since its inception, shipped over 2 million tons, completing one million deliveries by leveraging technology. It even managed to satisfactorily complete a monthly order of 50,000+ products for an e-commerce major to meet increased demand during the festive season.
Tracking deliveries
With customers raising the bar every day, the buck doesn’t stop at speed. It demands reliability and transparency too. The customer expects personalized communication via text and email to stay connected with the product from the time it leaves the warehouse till it reaches their doorstep.
Here again, tech-based 3PL players can provide great customer satisfaction through real-time updates that help them track the product right down the supply chain. Even if there’s a logjam, they are as much in the know as the supplier and transporter. This kind of visibility helps build brand loyalty which is imperative in a crowded market.
The road logistics market in India is expected to reach USD 330 billion by 2025, according to the ‘Inter-city Logistics Market Study’ by RedSeer. However, to ensure a seamless run, logistics tech aggregators need to come up with customized solutions to cater to clients who come in all shapes and sizes, demanding local, pan-India, and even global reach.
One way to do this is through smart packaging. Standardization in the size of the items and choice of packing material, with thermocol sheets and bubble wrap replacing bulky plywood or fragile glass cases, can bring down the burden of warehouse and transportation costs and scale up the volume of orders.
Plan for the future
The Indian logistics sector has one of the highest transportation costs at 14% Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The good news is that the government has come to its aid with the PM Gati Shakti—National Master Plan launched by PM Narendra Modi. Its aim is to break departmental silos and bring in more holistic and integrated planning and execution of projects with a view to addressing issues of multi-modal and last-mile connectivity. With better infrastructure, digitization, and pan-India mobile and internet connectivity, 3PL players can speed up their operations, helping D2C brands to thrive and grow.
Conclusion
While there is a steady growth in D2C business model adoption and e-commerce business, it is imperative for the companies to team up with the logistics players to ensure success and sustainable growth. A good logistics partner with tech-enabled solutions like TruckBhejo can provide unparalleled customer experience through speedy deliveries, timely status updates, and accommodating last-minute requests. Tech-led startups are adding immense value to the D2C brands by putting the technology into the use case and making various smart tools available to the customers. This “best match on the expressway” is ultimately ensuring delivery of not just the goods, but also of the customer experience and satisfaction.
Direct to Consumer (D2C) is a great way for brands to penetrate the market without the involvement of a third party. Using this route Brands can directly communicate with their customers and understand their needs. Due to COVID-19, the D2C market has expanded and many brands are using this method.
Did you know the Indian e-commerce market will grow by 21.5% in 2022? The expected revenue by 2025 can be USD 188 billion. The market size of the online retail industry in India is expected to reach USD 73 Billion in 2022. This shows the potential of the D2C market in India. To stay ahead of the competition we have brought you effective strategies to expand your D2C brand worldwide.
Effective Strategies to Expand Your D2C Brand Worldwide:
If your customers are getting confused then it will impact your sales. Providing a large variety of products is a good thing, but you should simplify and categorise all your products properly. Eliminate all the unnecessary choices and focus on providing excellent products to your customers.
Understand what the majority of your customers want and make your products accordingly. You can also try combining some features of 2 products to deliver all in one product to your customers.
2. Use Social Media Effectively
Social media is very important in today’s world. According to research in 2020, 3.96 billion people are actively using social media in the world. This shows that if you use social media effectively, it will positively impact your brand. You should use the following social media strategies to skyrocket your sales:
Influencer Marketing:
Collaborating with influencers will increase your customer base. Influencers usually have a huge audience to whom they can convey about your product. If they give positive reviews about your product, people will consider buying it. If you are just starting, you may not have a huge budget for Influencers. In this case, you should collaborate with micro-influencers in your niche. Connect with the people who have a decent amount of followers and create brand awareness.
Use infographics and memes:
Memes have become a sensation and many people use Instagram just for scrolling memes. Delivering your brand purpose or your products in a meme format can increase your following. Users tag each other in memes, so if your memes are good, the reach of your brand will automatically increase.
Why are your products best? What benefits do you offer? Why should people buy only from you? We highly recommend you use infographics to answer these questions.
3. Provide Testimonials
You can ask your customers to speak about the brand. Instead of just you speaking, provide opportunities to other users as well. It is seen that people believe more what the other users say about the brand.
So, if a lot of people on social media and your website speak positive things about your brand, the goodwill of your company will increase. People will trust your brand more and your sales conversions would eventually increase.
4. Give Freebies to Your Customers
Would other users or your customers make content for your brand? Making content would only benefit your brand and not the customers. You need to provide incentives to your customers. You can conduct various contests, give shout-outs to your customers and give them prizes. You can follow this sharing strategy:
10 shares: Shout-out
25 shares: Discount Coupon
40 shares: Free Product
Like this, you can create different ways of rewarding your customers.
D2C Market in India
5. Offer Free Return Policy
Having a free returns policy ensures your customers that your brand is trustable and gives them the confidence to purchase from you. This strategy is adopted by many prominent e-commerce companies like Amazon, Flipkart, etc. If people are not familiar with your brand free and hassle-free returns will ensure that they will buy something from you. Ensure that you provide excellent customer support for exchanging or returning products.
6. Focus on Organic Growth
It is good to run paid campaigns but, you should essentially focus on maximising organic traffic. To increase organic traffic you should focus on providing a memorable experience to your customers. Give them a high-quality product. Make a unique website, and an engaging social media account to drive organic traffic.
You should opt for an omnichannel approach providing customers with a seamless shopping experience whether they are shopping from a desktop, mobile or any other platform.
7. Use an Effective SEO Strategy
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is still one of the most effective ways to generate traffic to a website. An effective SEO strategy will help you to rank higher in Google Search Results. If you rank number 1 on search results you will generate a lot of organic traffic.
Create an amazing user-friendly website with a good landing page to attract customers. Hire an experienced SEO Team or you can do SEO by yourself. This is one of the cost-effective solutions to expand your brand.
8. Provide a Memorable Experience to Your Customers
For any business, it is essential to maintain a good customer relationship. You should connect with your target audience and understand their needs. After understanding, it is important to uniquely fulfil them. Apart from providing them with a high-quality product, you must treat them well from start to end. Your after-sales service should be excellent.
Make sure that your team answers all the calls, if they miss any they should call them back. Answer all the emails within 24 hours and reply to all their queries politely. Take their feedback positively and work on your mistakes. Try to constantly improve your products or services. If you have made any mistake then apologize or explain to them why that particular thing went wrong. If they make positive memories with your brand then you will stay in this race for a long period.
Conclusion
As the D2C Market is growing rapidly you need to be alert and make changes to your business at the right time. The above strategies will surely help you to expand your D2C Brand. Add your creativity and come up with out of the box strategies. The Golden Rule is to connect with your target audience and provide them with a memorable experience.
FAQs
How do you market a D2C brand?
Hire micro-influencers, Leverage social media, try to simplify product choices, and focus on your customer’s pain points.
How do you build a D2C strategy?
Leverage technology, be up to date with the ongoing trends in the D2C market and employ different marketing strategies.
First things first, the brands and companies that produce their goods on their own premises and distribute them through their own supply chains and distribution centers are called the D2C brands. This is basically an abbreviation for the term ‘Direct to Consumer’.
These brands are flexible to operate in any given industry and they market their products through various ways such as e-commerce platforms, social media as well as retail stores.
An example of such a brand is that of California’s Daou Vineyards and Winery which manufacture their own original wine and distribute them both offline as well online. They have their own retail stores where they sell their wines offline for the customers as well as online, through e-commerce platforms.
Another example can be considered as that of Patanjali, the Indian origin ayurvedic brand founded by Baba Ramdev. They manufacture a wide array of their own original FMCG products which are mostly herbal and ayurvedic in nature and sell them through retail stores of their own brand, through other anonymous retail stores as well as through e-commerce platforms. This is how flexibly these brands work.
Given the fact that today social media is where people spend half of their day, not just D2C brands but almost every company is into social media marketing and studies have proven that it is a great place to market products.
People from different backgrounds can find their desired products with just one click of an advertisement that might have popped up. However, D2C brands mostly comprise new businesses and startups. Thus, social media marketing/selling is the most effective and efficient option for them. Let us have a look at how these D2C brands utilize social media for their marketing.
To Reach a Large Audience
It is important for brands to recognize their audience group. For instance, if a brand like boAt, which deals in audio products, mainly targets the young customer group, they will have to strategize accordingly. They will have to make social media posts that attract the young generations.
The D2C brands like boAt also endorse their brands through social media celebrities, YouTubers, models, actors, cricketers, and influencers to promote their products, who have a large follower base.
In this case, boAt has hired the Indian cricketer Hardik Pandya and the Bollywood actress Kiara Advani as their brand ambassadors who have a huge number of followers on their Instagram profile. This way they can attract the attention of their targeted audience group.
boAt Celebrity Endorsers
To Grow the brand
While social media marketing, it is important to know what we want to achieve for our brand. Whether it is an increase in sales or an increase in brand recognition. Depending on how the advertisements are made, the posters are designed.
D2C brands generally do not follow a mix of marketing techniques to uplift their branding or increase their turnover. The social media advertisements help the brands to follow a cost-saving mechanism in promoting their brand.
Proving Brand Authenticity
Social media is a place where you cannot lie regarding your products. Today the consumers are well informed and in a ‘caveat venditor’ business environment, D2C brands always get an upper hand once they resort to social media marketing. People believe them.
Brands have to be authentic about the information related to their products and this authenticity brings in a lot of customers. This is a form of confidence that the brands show and market.
For example, the American lingerie brand ThirdLove connects with its customers by creating campaigns where they capture unfiltered and raw footage of women of all shapes from different parts of the world. This is how they break stereotypes and they make people believe what they believe i.e., to sell comfortable lingerie for everyone. This is how brands can connect to their audience through their authenticity.
Moment Marketing
One of the trendiest ways of the social media marketing that brands use is moment marketing. Moment marketing is the process of marketing products on the basis of taking advantage of a recent event that has earned a lot of attention. One of the great examples of this is the topical advertisement strategy of Amul. They make their ads on the basis of trending topics that are mostly in limelight.
Amul Moment Marketing
Customer Feedbacks
There are many D2C brands that approach customers to share their experience with their products and put that up on their social media feed so that new customers and buyers can have an idea about the product and its quality. This is a common practice in social media marketing.
Points D2C Brands Should Remember While Marketing on Social Media
The Volatility Factor
The D2C brands that utilize social media for their marketing are very much aware of the fact that social media is a very volatile place and the trends change every now and then. What is trending today might not be trending tomorrow and the strategies have to be changed accordingly.
Also, it is important to note that the same strategy would not work for every brand. Different brands with different product backgrounds need to incorporate varying strategies to stand out from the others.
Social Media Criticism
Social media is an independent platform where people express their thoughts independently and without any fear. Therefore, any wrong step from any brand would make itself vulnerable to the audience and might receive a lot of criticism.
For example, the American fashion biggie H&M received a strong backlash in early 2018 when they featured an African American young boy in a green sweatshirt and captioned it as the “coolest monkey in the jungle”. The brand had to immediately take the post off and had to apologize to the audience since this was extremely offensive and racial.
Cultural Factor
The brands should be aware of the social factors before they market something related to cultural values. For example, Mcdonald’s once had created a campaign during the Halloween captioned “Sundae Bloody Sundae” and had received some criticism on Twitter and had to put it down.
This was originally related to a massacre in 1972 when some British soldiers brutally killed some of the unarmed Irish protestors. The original slogan “Bloody Sunday” relates to this massacre.
Therefore, the brands should be aware of what they are conveying to the masses.
Connection Factor
It is not important that the campaigns have to be polished and beautifully aesthetic always. Sometimes calling out ugly truths and touching the dirt around the world can also form a connection with the young and rebellious generations.
For example, Ugly is a brand that often calls out stuff that is going wrong around the world through its social media advertisements. This way they make a stand for themselves as well as for what they believe in. This makes the young audience connect to the brand and its ideology.
The article is contributed by Mangesh Panditrao – CEO and Co-Founder, Shoptimize.
Propelled by the incumbent pandemic, online shopping has gained immense traction over 2020 and 2021, and the positive ripple effect is still being seen in the e-commerce industry. Throughout this period, e-commerce and omnichannel businesses innovatively leveraged the digital avenue to manage their offline stores and sustain themselves in the pandemic-battered business environment. However, with the rising competition, the next phase of success for e-commerce companies will be led by a deep understanding of the target market and meaningful connections with the customer. This is where data comes into effect.
Significance and Benefits of Data in E-commerce
Data Assist Brands Stay Updated With Crucial Business Insights
The overarching goal of every business is to increase its revenue. To accomplish that, the brand must make the right decisions at the right time, which can be done efficiently by analyzing data. Insights driven from consumer-centric data can help brands understand how the company is being perceived by customers, how the brand is performing in different markets, and the improvements required to maximize profits. This allows businesses to serve consumers, grow revenue, and improve operations.
Enables Brands to Provide Personalized User Experiences
Understanding how customers interact with your company is critical to determining what appeals to them. As a result, e-commerce companies might leverage data analytics to better understand their customers’ needs and improve their end-to-end purchasing experience through personalization. For instance, various platforms use data to understand customer demographics and tailor their marketing messages to suit different cohorts of consumers.
Helps in Making Data-Driven Decision
Customers’ needs are constantly changing, and with many brands available, they have more options than ever before. And to keep up with the ever-evolving needs of the consumers’ D2C brands will need to focus on improving their capabilities. Hence, data-driven decision-making is necessary for success. Brands may track their customers’ preferences through data and analytics based on factors such as location, demographics, and online behaviour. An evidence-based data enables brands to make informed decisions and thoughtfully prepare to achieve their objectives.
How Brands Can Leverage Data to Increase E-commerce Sales
Converge Data From Various Platforms and Channels
Ever since doing business went digital, the amount of data it has been generating on the side continues to get bigger and bigger every day. Analyzing this data to make critical decisions becomes overwhelming for internal teams and marketing companies. It requires a highly specialized skill set and cutting-edge technology to gauge insights and aid quick, efficient decision-making. E-commerce analytics helps brands quickly and easily gather data in one place, break down data silos, and increase productivity, efficiency, and business agility.
Join the Dots Between Your Customers and the Numbers
Simply collecting data and not being able to use it results in wastage of money and time. After the data is collected, data analytics gives a detailed view of the big picture; it also looks at relationships and patterns among several of its components before delivering business insights. Hence, one way of achieving this is through unified data analytics. Unified data analytics is basically a process that merges data processing with cutting-edge artificial intelligence to deliver business insights and outcomes.
Know When to Take Action
Seasonality and trends can play a significant part in your efforts to provide your consumers with the most seamless experiences possible. As a result, it’s essential to consider and maintain a close check on trends to take timely action. Understanding seasonal patterns & trends might assist you in determining how things will pan out throughout the year. As a result, you’ll be able to focus on the right products that are available at the right time so that customers’ expectations are met.
Reading Data to Understand Websites Shopping Behavior Flow
To understand the website’s shopping behaviour flow, you can monitor how a customer lands on your site, browses through products, adds them to the cart, and checks out. Sifting through this data will help you understand your website’s purchasing behaviour flow and reveal where customers are more engaged and which paths lead to conversions. Furthermore, it will draw attention to what isn’t working. This will allow you to read your visitors’ minds by observing their behaviour and better cater to them.
Use Data to Track Your Product Performance
It’s critical to look at detailed product data for both marketing and sales tracking. It helps in understanding the price band for different consumer segments. How are individual products performing & figuring out the bestsellers and the low-performing products. This allows businesses to devise the marketing campaigns accordingly. Furthermore, keeping track of returns and refunds helps improve the product’s quality. This approach can help an e-commerce business improve its services and quality, increase revenue, and improve operations.
Conclusion
Data is critical for businesses to thrive in this digital age. So, it’s high time that companies start making data-driven decisions to succeed at online selling. Integrating e-commerce analytics across the customer lifecycle is essential for creating a competitive customer experience. These findings will help brands improve the discovery, acquisition, conversion, retention, and advocacy process.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Anveya Living.
Anveya focuses on beauty, personal care, and wellness products which have a daily impact on lives and the planet. Its products promise purity, combined with the wisdom of nature, and compete and beat their synthetic counterparts on results. The concept of Anveya, an online brand providing a range of products for skincare and haircare was born in the year 2018 out of a desire to give Indian consumers natural beauty products that are formulated using deep nature technology and solve real beauty concerns.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Vivek Singh (Co-founder & CEO of Anveya Living) to get insights on the journey and growth hacks of the startup. In this article you’ll discover how Anveya started, its business model, products, marketing strategy and more.
Anveya stands for harmony. It drives awareness and provides result-driven product choices for healthy and conscious living. Anveya focuses on beauty, personal care, and wellness products which have a daily impact on lives and the planet. Its products promise purity, combined with the wisdom of nature, and compete and beat their synthetic counterparts on results.
The Anveya range started in 2019 with the purest gifts from nature – pure essential oil extracts and cold-pressed beauty oils. It launched its formulated range in early 2020. By the end of 2020, the startup also launched its second brand ThriveCo, a treatment-based results-driven range solving some of the deepest hair and skin problems of the consumers. All this while the startup has listened to its customers, about what they need next and that has been the basis of most of its innovations.
“We invest time, resources, and energy in clean products and technology, to promote and develop the most results-driven, cutting-edge formulations for your beauty and personal care needs” says Vivek Singh, Co-founder & CEO, Anveya.
Journey of Anveya – How it Started
The company was founded by Vivek Singh and Saurav Patnaik in the year 2018 and is based out of Bangalore.
Vivek noticed that his wife stocked up on her curly hair products whenever she or other friends traveled abroad. She insisted that there were no Indian brands that matched the quality of what was available internationally. As he and Saurav spoke to more friends and family, they realized that this behavior was common across beauty products. They kept hearing that even the best Indian brands do not match the standard of international brands. They began digging into this only to realize that that cutting-edge deep work has been happening in research labs all across the world. But those innovations take too much time to reach the country if they do at all. This was the moment that they decided to create a brand that beats international brands in product quality and customer love.
The concept of Anveya, an online brand providing a range of products for skincare and haircare was born in the year 2018 out of a desire to give Indian consumers natural beauty products that are formulated using deep nature technology and solve real beauty concerns. It’s a premium beauty brand that has come a long way with a host of skincare and haircare products. The main focus of the brand is to provide personal care and wellness categories that have a daily impact on people’s lives and the planet.
Anveya began with an honest vision and modest resources. The product was at the core of the founders’ thoughts and so, key early investments were done on sourcing and R&D. The team decided to reach consumers directly through the internet, as that would help them talk transparently and they hoped that the consumers would reciprocate. This meant the team didn’t have to invest in building all-India distribution. Anveya started with operating from a single warehouse, a small team, and a strong will to make a difference. Its early investments came from the founders’ own savings and from friends and family.
The internet helped the startup a lot, the team wanted to have an open channel of communication with the customers, which it got with the grace of the internet. This enabled them to communicate transparently with others and discuss the solutions after hearing others’ needs and feedback. This was a very different approach from the traditional way of celebrity-showcasing, powered by a big budget that the other brands have been taking. Lastly, as an online-first brand, they wanted to leverage the internet and all its strengths against the massive offline distribution strength that traditionally was being used by beauty and personal care brands.
Anveya – Products and USP
Anveya is a premium brand and the founders take pride in being able to offer the cleanest and effective products for skin and hair care. These products target some of the biggest hair & skin concerns like dryness, damage, frizz, breakage, hair fall, scalp health, and hair growth.
Anveya Haircare Product
Anveya’s range comprises 45 premium quality products spread across the categories of Hair Care, Skincare, Cold-Pressed Oils, and Essential Oils. Its formulated products have been created in partnership with some of the most advanced labs across the world that work on natural active ingredients and with some of the top formulators and manufacturers in the country. These products are not only the best-in-class formulations, but also beat their synthetic counterparts on results. Anveya’s range of pure natural essential oils and organic cold-pressed oils includes some of the finest beauty and wellness gifts that come straight from nature, with an obsession with the origin, their purity, and their certificates of analysis. Its products, pricing, and positioning are premium, where the team is bringing international quality products to their consumers, made in India, at Indian prices.
In the year 2020, the founders also launched their second brand ThriveCo, a treatment-based range solving some of the deepest hair and skin problems of its consumers. All this while they have listened to their customers, about what they need next and that has been the basis of most of its innovations.
Anveya – Founders and Team
Anveya Living Private Limited has been co-founded by Vivek Singh (CEO) & Saurav Patnaik (COO). Vivek and Saurav have worked together since 2008 when Vivek used to head digital marketing for HT Media’s internet arm and Saurav used to run his marketing technology company Kenscio. After finishing their last assignments, the two came together in 2018 to co-found Anveya.
Vivek Singh, Co-founder & CEO
Vivek Singh – Co-founder & CEO of Anveya
As someone who grew up in a small-town middle-class family with agricultural roots, Vivek witnessed how lifestyle evolved from being in complete harmony with nature to devaluing nature, and with it, ourselves. He also realized that the beauty industry’s R&A was resulting in more in the destruction of our relationship with nature rather than in nurturing that relationship. Anveya is his attempt to find a common ground between customer needs, what the planet needs, the power of nature, and use science and technology to bring all these together. Before his role as the Co-founder & CEO of Anveya, Vivek led the emergence of FirstCry, the country’s leading baby & kids brand, as their SVP Marketing. He has also held marketing & business responsibilities for Hindustan Times Media’s internet businesses.
Vivek is a graduate of IIT (BHU) Varanasi and a post-graduate from IIM Lucknow. He spends his leisure time sketching and painting, and reading about evolution and the human mind. He is also the protagonist of a non-fiction book, Dare Eat That (Penguin RandomHouse India) which chronicles his attempt to experiment with and taste unique cuisines from around the world.
Saurav Patnaik, Co-founder & COO
Saurav Patnaik – Co-founder & COO of Anveya
Saurav is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful companies built in the space of technology and advertising serving more than 200 Enterprises. On one of his technology chasing tours to Israel, he accidentally met entrepreneurs who were using high-tech stem cell technology to create potent personal care products. The focus was on results while keeping nasty chemicals away. While all these products & innovations were interesting and exciting, the realization also seeped in that Indian customers might not find access to these technologies at all.
Especially in a market where people are being handed beaten down versions/formulations of the products at rock bottom prices with the help of celebrities and false promises, the people deserved more. Thus began Saurav’s incessant and obsessive search for the best ingredients, technologies, and formulators across the world. As the Co-founder & COO for Anveya, Saurav is bridging the gap by making top-notch products and formulations available to Indian customers.
Anveya is a small and robust team of about 20 people who love doing great work together, and this has helped them grow as people and businesses.
Anveya – Name, Tagline and Logo
Anveya comes from the root word “anvaya”, which means harmony. The team here is inspired by how everything works so harmoniously in nature, how everything is beautifully balanced. They wanted to stand the harmony between nature, ourselves, and the products that all use.
The two leaves in its brand logo signify life, balance, and freshness. It reminds them that Anveya’s products have to stay true to the harmony that Nature inspires them to have.
Anveya Logo
Anveya – Mission and Vision
Anveya Living as a company, is propelled with the vision of closing the large gap that exists between the much-coveted international beauty brands and the other beauty offerings that are there in the Indian market.
According to a statement by Co-founder and CEO Vivek Singh, creating high-quality products is at the core of the vision of Anveya.
Anveya – Business Model and Revenue Model
Anveya is a direct-to-consumer brand (D2C). It works on and drives excellence at all steps of its consumer offering – right from the research and formulations, to sourcing of raw materials and tightly controlled manufacturing processes, warehousing and operations, marketing, eCommerce, and customer service.
Speaking on the business model of the company, Vivek Singh said, “The D2C movement was a disruption for the consumer industry. We’re taking it to another level by working to disrupt the D2C segment itself, by breaking some of the long-standing assumptions in the traditional FMCG and D2C industry. And in the process, customers are loving our honest, uncompromising and straight-talking brands.”
Anveya’s products are directly available for the customer at all points – whether it’s about telling them about the brand and product offerings, servicing customer orders, or answering questions. This helps it stay true to customer expectations and own the effectiveness that its products bring into their lives. The startup runs its own eCommerce stores at anveya.com and thriveco.in and directly manages its presence on marketplaces like amazon.in and flipkart.com without the involvement of any mediators or resellers. It operates its own warehouse and directly deals with logistics to ensure a high-quality seamless experience for the customers.
Now known as a major player in the D2C industry, it was quite early when Anveya decided to stick to the multi-brand strategy. The first brand of Anveya Living was named Anveya, which was founded in early 2019 and is designed as a premium beauty brand that offers hair and skincare solutions with the help of natural active ingredients that it uses. ThriveCo is the second brand launched by Anveya in 2020, with an aim to provide solutions for deep skin and hair-related causes. Both the brands are described as “clean labels”, which do not support the use of parabens or sulfates and stand as 100% transparent about the ingredients they use. Anveya Living also launched Anveya Curls, which is one of the first ranges that are solely dedicated to curly hair, which is something that is often overlooked by the traditional market.
A major portion of Anveya’s revenues come from its own websites anveya.com and thriveco.in. It also maintains an ingredient directory on its own stores where the customers can read about all the ingredients that the product used. It is currently planning to create a direct channel with the customers in the times upcoming.
Anveya – Launch and Marketing Strategy
Anveya’s very first customers, even before its public launch, were the founders’ very supportive friends. They helped the team to evaluate the thoughts, provide key inputs, test the prototypes, and spread the word.
At the start, the startup did not have an eCommerce presence of its own. Anveya launched its products on Amazon.in and then on Flipkart.com. These marketplaces have empowered brands and startups phenomenally. They are a great way for a young brand to reach potential customers. They have not only built fantastic shopping fronts for the customers but have also built a very robust and accessible backend for the brands. The team at Anveya utilized its advertising platforms to show its products and gain the first few customers. It gives young startups an opportunity to enter the same level playing field that the big established businesses and brands operate in.
Since the beginning, the team has been focussing on content. Even before Anveya’s products were launched, they started witnessing the audience reading its helpful articles. Even on the products, the startup provides a lot of details, literature, and documentation about the product, ingredients, what it does and what’s the best way to achieve your goals with the product and beyond.
“Lastly, if you do good work, a lot of repeat and word of mouth builds. We have been fortunate to see a lot of brand searches, repeating orders, and referrals too” Vivek added.
Anveya’s curly hair campaigns have had great success. The team wanted to provide a solution for people with curly hair – a customer segment that has largely been ignored by established brands and businesses. The startup’s message to ‘Embrace Your Curls’ hit a chord with the audience, as most other brands have always catered to straight hair only and some have even made curly hair people feel bad about their hair.
Anveya’s Curls Hair Care Range
Anveya – Challenges Faced
Bringing some of the world’s best quality products to Indian consumers had several challenges. Firstly, the Indian consumer has historically been served with much poorer quality products than some of the international counterparts. Ingredients that have been rejected by several countries are still being served here. When this was the norm, the founders decided to do it differently. They wanted to make sure that they get the best and most effective products possible in the entire world.
Secondly, and leading from the first challenge, was a consumer perception that Indian products don’t work as well as some of the international brands do. This is a perception the team at Anveya has changed with what they bring to their customers.
Thirdly, and the internet medium helped them a great deal here, the startup wanted to have an open channel of communication with the customers. This enabled the team to communicate transparently to customers about Anveya’s solutions and to hear from them their needs and their feedback. This was a very different approach from the celebrity-showcasing, big-budget approach the traditional brands have been taking.
Lastly, as an online-first brand, Anveya wanted to leverage the internet and all its strengths against the massive offline distribution strength that traditionally was being used by beauty and personal care brands.
Anveya – Funding and Investors
Anveya initially raised modest but sufficing investments from friends and family, including some respected angel investment names in the country. The company has raised its maiden funding (Seed) round on February 8, 2022, where it has raised $80 mn from Rukam Capital. These funds would be used by the company for further research and development. Furthermore, it is also planning to foray into new categories and markets along with building a team that would help it do so.
Funding Date
Name of the Transaction
Amount Raised
Lead Investors
February 8, 2022
Seed Round
$80 mn
Rukam Capital
The startup drives business health on both fronts – growth and economics. The team here focuses on having customer traction-driven growth and so far both of its brands have grown well on the back of fantastic products, transparent communication, and customer love.
With a purview on the competitiveness Anyeva faces, Vivek Singh says – Anveya is filling a gap that has been ignored in the country forever. It is producing premium beauty and personal care products, obsessing around the product quality and effectiveness, and at par, if not beating their international counterparts. There are only a few brands doing the good work that the consumers of the country deserve. The team looks at them as inspirations rather than as competitors, and they hope that all of these good brands succeed and make their place in the consumer’s hearts and in the market forever.
Anveya – Future Plans
Anveya’s journey has just begun. It will be launching new categories and growing the range from its current set of 45 products to about 70 products in the coming year to cater to the needs and goals of its customers. The startup will be looking at expanding the reach of its e-commerce stores and also reaching customers through targeted marketplaces. The team is also working on enriching the experience of their customers through content, consultation, and solutions to their needs.
Anveya – FAQs
What is Anveya?
Anveya focuses on beauty, personal care, and wellness products which have a daily impact on lives and the planet.
Who founded Anveya?
Anveya Living Private Limited has been co-founded by Vivek Singh (CEO) & Saurav Patnaik (COO).
When was Anveya founded?
Anveya was founded in 2018.
Is Anveya an Indian Company?
Yes. Anveya is an Indian Company based out of Bangalore.
How does Anveya work?
Anveya is a direct-to-consumer brand (D2C). Its products are directly available for the customer at all points. The startup runs its own eCommerce stores at anveya.com and thriveco.in and directly manages its presence on Amazon and Flipkart without the involvement of any resellers. It operates its own warehouse and directly deals with logistics.
What are Anveya’s Products?
Anveya’s range comprises 40 premium quality products spread across the categories of Hair Care, Skincare, Cold-Pressed Oils, and Essential Oils. These products target some of the biggest hair & skin concerns like dryness, damage, frizz, breakage, hair fall, scalp health, and hair growth.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Hair Originals.
Shark Tank has been making some noise in the country and in the business industry since it was announced in the year 2021. Originally released in December 2021, the Indian version of Shark Tank America has quickly grown to be one of the favorites of Indian startups, businesses, entrepreneurs, and other working professionals and individuals. Yes, we now get the opportunity to witness the Indian version of the most anticipated business reality show in the world. Naturally, when it started telecasting on Sony Television Channel, it created hype amongst the youth, and especially the young entrepreneurs.
For those who are not aware of what Shark Tank is, it is a business reality show where entrepreneurs get funds from the investors, who are judging the business models presented by them if they like their business models. These investors are some of the biggest and most successful business people out there.
If you are wondering why we are suddenly discussing Shark Tank India, then it is to introduce Hair Originals, a Gurugram-based premium natural hair extension products, and services company. The company has recently been famous as a brand recognized by Shark Tank India, where it also received funding.
Here’s more about HairOriginals, its Funding and Investors, Founders and Team, Growth, Future Plans, and more.
January 25, 2022 – Hair Originals raises $30 mn in the pre-Seed funding round, where the company received funds from angel investments that came from marquee investors. After its success with the global B2B model, the company has now launched its D2C online platform.
About Hair Originals
Before Shark Tank, Hair Originals have already spread their word across the world. With intricate customer market research and manufacturing excellence, Hair Originals Founder and CEO, Jitendra Sharma achieved something exceptional. They created a range of premium hair extensions and participated in the prestigious World Hair Congress in France. Famous hairstylist, Eric Maurice appreciated their work and fell in love with it. He decided to become the brand ambassador of Hair Originals in no time.
The popularity of their hair extensions has now leapt all bounds. The products are now exported to luxury salons in 22 countries. The company reigned in the B2B sector by partnering with top luxury salons. There was a need for a customer-centric solution and a considerable demand for top-quality natural hair extensions. HairOriginals launched a Direct-To-Consumer platform that sells high-quality hair extensions at affordable rates. Mr. Jitendra Sharma set fair pricing and made HairOriginals, one of India’s top hair extensions brands.
What makes HairOriginals Different from Other Brands?
Starting from the luxurious market of Paris, HairOriginals became a popular hair extensions brand. Apart from the loyal customers, the company ties up with salon partners across the world. These salon partners provide free hair extension installation for the customers. HairOriginals is the official partner of prestigious hair training academies like Schwarzkopf and L’oreal. It is an official partner of Helder Marucci Master Class, a famous Brazilian stylist. There’s no doubt that 100% Remi Indian hair is amongst the most premium hair. By keeping this in mind, HairOriginals procures top-quality human hair from some south Indian temples. It ensures the best quality. They do not use any chemicals to process the hair.
Along with quality, price plays a crucial role. It decides whether the hair extensions are worth buying or not. Existing brands were producing substandard hair extensions. As there was no competition back then, Mr. Sharma saw the market monopoly. The brands charge 2 to 3 times more from the customers. Their hair extensions were also of substandard quality. HairOriginals make their hair extensions with natural virgin Remi Indian hair known for its rich texture. It offers the best flexibility and freedom to color, style, and maintain.
Hair Originals In Shark Tank
India has always been one step ahead when it comes to taking natural ayurvedic care of hair. Indian hair is most sought-after by the cosmetic industry worldwide. It has a rich texture that is necessary for the best hair extensions. It won’t look like a big deal for a layman but Jitendra Sharma found a goldmine sitting there right in the open. HairOriginals & Shark Tank -two names are now lingering on the tongues of the masses. Mr. Jitendra Sharma jumped right into the battle of procuring natural hair strands. He soon emerged as a forerunner in the industry. And now he and his venture HairOriginal got featured in the latest edition of Shark Tank India.
Hair Originals – Founder and Team
HairOriginals Founder – Mr. Jitendra Sharma
Jitendra Sharma
Mr. Jitendra Sharma is the founder and CEO of HairOriginals. His recent feature in Shark Tank has got all the people and media outlets talking about him and his venture. It raised the eyebrows of the sharks and got them intrigued with the sheer vision. As a 2008 IIT Delhi Alumni, Sharma has always pursued excellence. Jitendra Sharma has a dual degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi and has worked 11 years as a Precom Leader at TotalEnergies before founding Hairoriginals in September 2019. His 11 years of experience in the oil industry and exposure to global cultures helped him. He discovered India’s unorganized hair extension market and saw infinite opportunities.
The company had another founder, Ashish Tiwari, who split up with Jitendra Sharma and stepped down from the Co-founder position, thereby leaving the company in December 2021. Tiwari left the company to co-found HairForever.
HairOriginals nurtures a well-knit team of experienced in-house stylists that stand out with their industry-leading craftsmanship. Therefore, both the hair products and services of Hair Originals are of superior quality.
Hair Originals – Startup Story and its Journey to Shark Tank
Shark Tank shows have been a great success in their many overseas counterparts. This craze has now come to India and has become the talk of the town. The show consists of entrepreneurs who present their ventures to a group of investors called sharks. These sharks are some of India’s most celebrated entrepreneurs and industry leaders. They have been there and done that. Most of the sharks have built their own ventures from scratch and know what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Mr. Sharma got an offer to present their venture HairOriginals on the Shark Tank India show. He elaborated on how his company can revolutionize the fashion industry. No wonder he got attractive investment offers from all the sharks. They closed a pre-seed round which they will use for more intricate market research and faster growth. They also have an eye on pre-series A rounds. It will give a push to their partner salon programs and Direct-To-Consumer platform.
Hair Originals – Funding and Investors
HairOriginals has raised funding worth Rs 3 crore in its pre-Seed funding round via angel investments from marquee investors on January 25, 2022. This is the second funding that the company received after it was initially funded in the popular business reality show, Shark Tank India. The funding that the startup received is presently being channeled towards AR technologies. This will benefit real-time product experience before purchase, workforce expansion, and other back-end developments.
Hair Originals – Growth
The Hair Originals line of products is made from ethically acquired human hair. This has empowered and is empowering the women from various cities of India working in this particular segment. The products of Hairoriginals have been exhibited in multiple international events and exported across 22 countries including the top luxury salons of the US, Europe, and Africa.
The Hair Original products were also positioned in the luxury segment, where it received numerous positive remarks from fashion critics at the World Hair Congress in France. Eric Maurice, a renowned celebrity stylist from France has come onboard to be the brand ambassador of Hair Originals.
Hair Original boasts of being the global leader in processing and delivering 100% Natural Hair Extensions, which is made from virgin Indian remy (scalp sourced) hair with a huge number of consumers across the globe. Besides, numerous internationally renowned celebrity hair-stylists like Latil Pascal and Laurent Voicinet use Hair Original products for their shows.
The global positive feedback that Hairoriginals receive from its customers across the globe and the support that it gets from its investors is the driving force in the expansion of its business.
Hair Originals – Future Plans
Before knowing what the future of hair extensions is, a little peek in history will amaze you. Hair extensions were used by women for thousands of years. There are some historic mentions that Egyptian queen Cleopatra who ruled the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, used to wear hair extensions.
It wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that under the leadership of Mr. Jitendra Sharma, HairOriginals will reach the heights of success. The latest Shark Tank investment round will fuel their growth. It will also help them to put themselves on a global map. The company intends to expand its horizons by partnering with more high-end salons across the top countries. It will catapult its customer-facing platform to pull more customers. There’s no doubt that HairOriginals will change how people use hair extensions. Founder Jitendra Sharma knows that his company will revolutionize the global fashion industry. He has great confidence in the wide range of hair textures, colors, and lengths their hair extensions provide.
With the launch of the D2C platform of Hair Originals, the goal of the company now is to make its premium products affordable for everyone. This the company aims to make feasible by cutting the cost of the middlemen. The founder and CEO, Jitendra Sharma said, “in the upcoming 2 to 2.5 years, our aim is to achieve a target of 100 Cr ARR.”
Conclusion
The rapidly growing fashion industry shows great potential for hair extensions. Fashion models, as well as top celebrities, use hair extensions. They are used by top hair stylists for music videos, fashion shows, movies, and whatnot. With such great exposure and need, it would be safe to say that hair extension are here to stay. They provide different installation types that only maximize their versatility. The Shark Tank investment round will give them the needed boost and global exposure. It will ease their growth and help them connect to a massive network of investors. It will play a crucial role in their growth.
The startups today are revolutionizing the entire world’s marketplace. The technology used by startups not only brings profit to the company but also eases up various activities for people.
Startups can be of various kinds. For example- lifestyle, food, small and large businesses, social, etc. One of the most popular and lucrative startups is a food startup. Food is something, the need of which will always remain in the market. So, taking advantage of this need is always a good idea for a startup.
Nowadays another concept is gaining great popularity. These are D2C (Direct to Consumer) startups. In this, the brands sell directly to the customers. Many food startups are now indulging in this model.
In India, we have now various food D2C startups. For example- Dotshot, NatureBox, Evo Foods etc.
D2C stands for Direct-to-Consumer. In simple words, D2C is a type of business model. So, a startup that follows this model is a D2C startup. There are various business models. These include B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumer), C2C (Consumer To Consumer), C2B (Consumer to Business).
The D2C startups are gaining huge popularity in the present times. In this, a company or brand produces its product and also sells it itself. This creates a direct connection with the consumers. In short, it cuts the role of middlemen.
D2C model can work in almost every industry. The days when businesses were completely dependent on the distributors are gone. Now, the businesses depend on the producers as well. With various technologies and digitalization, the producers can also be their own distributors. Thus, a D2C model of business is super lucrative for startups. All this has helped the model to gain huge popularity in recent times.
What is a D2C Food Startup?
A food D2C startup produces products and sells them to consumers without middlemen. These startups don’t rely on other platforms for their distribution.
They establish their website or application for this purpose. Food D2C startups cut the role of middlemen or middle platforms. This enables a food brand to have a direct connection with the customers. Also, this makes for a lucrative model for a food startup.
The D2C food startups are becoming a trend these days. Keeping up with the trend, various D2C food startups have come up in India. These are:
Nature’s Box
Nature’s Box Homepage
Nature’s Box is a food-tech startup. The founders are Gautam Gupta, Dilpreet Singh, and Kenneth Chen. They started this with the D2C model. The company delivers natural snack foods to the customers on monthly basis.
With this startup, Gautam aimed to bring healthy changes in people’s life. Nature’s Box is a great place for people to find themselves a healthy snack.
Nature’s Box is a great example of a D2C food startup that has constantly evolved itself with the changing times. It started with the mere D2C model. Later it indulged in corporate subscriptions. Following the pandemic, it provided automated solutions for delivering personalized snack packs to corporate employees.
Dotshot
Dot Shot Homepage
Dotshot is a startup that deals in anti-hangover drinks. Founded by Viraj Patel in the year 2016. Dotshot is a drink made with herbs with a zest of lemon.
Dotshot is the ultimate solution for people who take regular drinks. This prevents them from getting any hangover effects the next morning. These drinks are anti-ageing, anti-oxidant.
This is another startup that works with the D2C model. It is the producer as well as the distributor of its products.
The Whole Truth Foods
The Whole Truth Foods Homepage
The Whole Truth startup came into existence in 2019. Shashank Mehta is the founder of the startup. The company produces protein bars. These bars are free from sugar, preservative, artificial flavoring, or colouring agents.
The main idea behind the startup was to promote healthy eating with easy-to-eat bars. This health food startup delivers its products directly to the customers.
In the future, the food-tech D2C startup plans to expand its food areas. They will be launching new food categories soon with ensured taste and quality.
True Elements
True Elements Homepage
The food startup manufactures plant-based healthy food items. The startup was founded in the year 2014 by Puru Gupta and Sreejith Moolayil. The company works with a Direct-to-Consumer model.
The company offers a variety of breakfast cereals, grains, raw and roasted seeds, snacks, and others. Their products are made with hundred percent whole grains.
This D2C food startup has gained huge popularity for its variety of healthy and tasty snacks.
Evo Foods
Evo Foods Homepage
This Indian food startup produces a vegan substitute for eggs. It was found by Kartik Dixit and Shraddha Bhansali in 2019.
The startup aims to give the optimum egg proteins through green proteins. They follow the D2C business model. More people now want to turn vegan. Evo Foods bring the egg proteins to the greens. This concept has gained the startup great popularity in the Indian market.
Gourmet Garden
Gourmet Garden Homepage
This Indian food startup was founded in the year 2019. The founders are Arjun Balaji and Vishal Narayanaswamy. The startup offers fresh and pure fruits and vegetables. These are grown with great care without any contamination or chemicals.
Gourmet Garden is another startup that has a Direct-to-Consumer business model. One can get fresh fruits and vegetables delivered to their doorsteps. You can order them on their official website.
The Pandemic and the Rise of D2C Food Brands in the Industry
The concept of D2C is not a new one. It has always existed in the market. But the pandemic gave a boost to the growth of D2C startups. Due to the pandemic, people were shifting online for their needs. Be it clothing, food, or other essentials.
During the pandemic, the markets got disrupted. The connection between wholesalers, distributors, and retailers could not function well. This made various brands realize the importance of making direct sales to consumers.
Many brands decided to keep the middlemen out and make direct sales to the consumers.
Conclusion
The entire marketplace got disrupted during the pandemic. Manufacturing companies kept on producing but the delivery issues remained. The connection and coordination between producers, middlemen, and consumers got shaken.
This is one of the main reasons that gave rise to the Direct-to-Consumer model. D2C model has now become super popular. More businesses have started to think about its inclusion in their business model.
The D2C model of startups removes the role of middlemen. This makes it perfect for both the brand and the customers. The customers get to have the products at a lower price. The brands on the other hand get to enjoy more profit.
FAQ
What is a D2C food startup?
A D2C food startup is a startup that produces products and sells products directly to consumers without middlemen. These startups don’t rely on other platforms for their distribution.
What are some of the top food D2C startups in India?
Dot Shot, Evo Foods, The Whole Truth Foods, and Gourmet Garden are some of the top D2C food startups in India.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Auric.
Auric is a Direct to Consumer (D2C) brand that is creating innovative and convenient lifestyle products by blending Ayurveda with the benefits of modern sciences. Deepak Agarwal founded Auric to bring Ayurveda closer to Millennials! The USP of Auric’s beverages lies in formulation – No preservatives, No added sugar, 100% natural & low calories.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Deepak Agarwal (Founder, Auric) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. Let’s discover more about Auric in this article –
Auric is essentially a novel and aspirational Direct To Consumer (D2C) brand creating innovative and convenient lifestyle products by blending Ayurveda with the benefits of modern sciences. It aims to break the lucrative $5 billion worth Ayurveda & Supplements industry by championing a scintillating array of world-class consumer products.
Auric operates in the mass-premium segment at the crossroads of Consumer Goods & Supplements. It has a unique range of Ayurveda-inspired, Coconut-water based drinks for Beauty & Wellness drinks for healthy skin, Balanced Weight & Stronger Hair being some of the examples. The company has also launched Ayurveda-based Hot Beverages such as – Moringa Masala Tea, Turmeric Coffee & Ashwagandha Hot Chocolate.
The long-term vision of Auric is to bring Ayurveda closer to Millennials – products. If Millennials prefer Turmeric Latte over Haldi Doodh then Auric is former than later. Auric wants to become part of the daily lifestyle of Millennials.
Auric – Market/Industry Details
There are broadly three themes where Auric is trying to own space –
a) Premiumisation: Aspirational shift from Haldi Doodh to Turmeric Latte
b) Convenience: From Ready-to-Make To Ready-to-Drink (Aloe Amla Juice vs Aloe Amla Drink)
c) Newness: Same Benefits, Different Formats (Glowing Skin Drink and Glowing Skin Tablet)
Globally, Ayurveda is a $5Bn market while Yoga is a $100B economy. Ayurveda essentially needs to address this gap through various form factors including beverages. Foods & Beverages as an industry is moving towards nutraceuticals through fortification and Ayurveda due to its credibility is turning out to be a driver of that fortification.
Ayurveda is an Ancient Wisdom and the wisdom has been carried over generations in multiple shapes & forms. Let’s look at beverages, for example, the Ayurvedic Beverages market is going to be an intersection of the $10B beverages market and $1B nutraceuticals market.
At-home rituals such as Lemon water or Concentrates like Apple Cider Vinegar or Traditional choices such as Kadak Masala Tea & Buttermilk are rooted in ancient wisdom. The non-alcoholic drinking occasions market is replete with examples in packaged/branded and unpackaged/unbranded categories. Amla Juice is an example of the former while Haldi doodh is an example of the latter. As health and wellness rise, Ayurveda will find relevance in every drinking occasion of the multi-billion dollar beverage market.
Deepak Agarwal is the Founder & the CEO of the company Auric.
Deepak Agarwal
Deepak Agarwal is the Founder & CEO of the company. He is a Fitness & Food enthusiast. The founder of Auric is quite passionate about the consumer brands of India! At Hindustan Unilever Ltd, he began his career as a summer intern and then joined the company as a Business Leadership Trainee. With every passing day, he got a higher position in the company. Currently, he is the founder & CEO of Auric. He is a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Deepak completed his schooling from Apeejay School.
Deepak Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Auric
Auric – Startup Story
Deepak always dreamed of starting his own startup! After almost 10 long years in a corporate sector, he realized and founded his own Ayurveda drinks focussed startup. Since he belonged to a family of businessmen and chartered accountants, he too wanted to go in the same field. But from his college days, he was unable to find out in which sector he should start his business. For a long period of time, he was trying to find out the answer to his question and one fine day he got the answer from himself.
He used to be a sportsperson during his school days. But, unfortunately, he met with an accident during a football game which was conducted in his college. Deepak was the goalkeeper and during the game, a striker struck his knee which resulted in a number of fractures and so on. After this, he was totally off sports! This led him to ayurveda and he found his answer to the question. Soon after his corporate life ended, he started off with his new business idea.
Auric – Idea & Inspiration
A backbone fracture in University-led Deepak Agarwal, the Founder of Auric, to Yoga after Physiotherapy did not work for him. Yoga made Deepak a strong advocate of Ancient Wisdom which led him on the path to learn & experiment with Ayurveda.
Deepak Agarwal – Founder of Auric
While convincing friends and family to adopt Ayurveda, he observed reasons of Millennials to not consume Ayurveda – poor sensorial, a little trust, or absence of aspiration. Since Millennials are going to carry the flag of Ayurveda in the future, Deepak decided to Build Auric – Ayurveda for Millennials. Wellness, Natural Living, and Going back to Roots are some of the strong drivers for Ayurveda to become a daily lifestyle for India going forward. Auric is at the helm of the same.
“We did our own little research starting with Herbal Juices. We found that almost every single Amla Juice & Aloe Vera Juice selling in the market was Junk” – says Deepak.
Millennials believe in Clean labels and 100% Natural Nutrition. “If you cannot feed the same products to your children, you may not as well sell to others”, should be the wisdom of FMCG entrepreneurs. Also, most Ayurvedic products in the market do not mention basic details on calories, sugar, the fiber in the form of a nutrition table on the back of the pack. How else will we count the calories & sugar intake?
Auric – Products Offered
Coconut Water-based Ayurvedic Drinks and Ayurveda-inspired Hot Beverages are the product lines of Auric. Its highest selling products include Drinks for Glowing Skin & Sexual Wellness and Moringa Masala Tea.
The Auric beverages are made keeping in mind the traditional formulations from Charaka Samhita as well as recommended Daily Intake as prescribed by Ayurveda Pharmacopeia of India. Each bottle of Auric contains 25% of recommended daily intake of essential herbs for wellness and beauty.
Auric Products
The best part is, they do not add any preservatives or chemicals. Auric drinks are 100% natural, made with premium herbs, tender coconut water, and refreshing fruit juice – to deliver the benefits of Ayurveda with the convenience of a beverage. Auric doesn’t allow any junk in its products. The team has distilled the goodness of 5 Ayurvedic herbs in each bottle of Auric and mixed it with coconut water.
Auric – Ideology behind Name & Logo
Auric is a purpose-led brand with Ayurveda for Millennials. The purpose is to help make better choices for a better lifestyle whether it is Better Skin or Better Sexual Wellness or Better Tea for example. On other hand, a Millennial Ayurveda brand should make Ayurveda part of Millennial pop culture i.e. making Ayurveda trendy, relatable, and part of the lifestyle.
Auric (Awe-rik) is Inspired by the words Aura and Aurora that describe the mystical beauty of nature & its divinity.
Auric Logo
The name Auric also hints at the chemical name of Gold in Latin. It depicts the ‘trivalent form’ of Gold (meaning formed of 3 atoms) – depicting Body, Mind & Soul. The attributes of Gold further go on to inspire the personality of the three variants – Skin Radiance, Body Defence, and Mind Rejuvenation. On repetition, ‘Auric’ sounds like ‘Aur Ek’ which colloquially means “one more”, mentally conditioning the patrons to get another one.
The Logo Symbol represents an artistic version of the Celtic Symbol of the ‘Tree of Life’. Being nature-inspired, Auric strongly communicates Ayurvedic Science and many facets of it. Smart internal divisions create 5 leaf-like forms symbolizing 5 human senses. The interplay of the positive and negative space produces a life-like form sitting in a meditative posture while subtly creating the likeliness of a lotus. The custom-created Typeface has curved terminals and sharp edges denoting the Brand Personality to be bold & edgy, yet friendly & empathetic.
The typography is inspired by nature, which is subtly cued by the leaf-like terminals of the letters. The color of the Symbol is derived from the Brand Name and is thus an amalgamation of multiple shades of Gold. The Golden Symbol and the Black Wordmark complement each other well, as they are in perfect contrast; giving each other adequate visual space, whilst also navigating attention. The Symbol and the Wordmark harmoniously create a strong Visual Identity of the brand – a modern spin to the ancient art of Ayurveda.
Millennials today discover new brands online and hence, Auric is a 100% D2C online brand available pan India. Auric is essentially a novel and aspirational Direct To Consumer (D2C) brand creating innovative and convenient lifestyle products by blending Ayurveda with the benefits of modern sciences.
Auric operates in the mass-premium segment at the crossroads of Consumer Goods & Supplements. It has a unique range of Ayurveda-inspired, Coconut-water based drinks for Beauty & Wellness drinks for healthy skin, Balanced Weight & Stronger Hair being some of the examples.
Auric – Revenue Model
The revenue model of Auric is quite simple! Auric offers exotic discounts to its consumers almost everyday. Initially, there was an introductory offer which was only available for the first thousand consumers. Customers got free delivery all across the country. Auric till now tries to introduce different offers to its users because this benefits the company a lot. The company also provides a 10% discount on every drink purchased. Lifetime membership plan is also available at only Rs 500/- which is quite reasonable and after availing this, the users get a discount of 53% for the rest of the life.
Auric – Marketing Strategies
Auric’s marketing strategy is well balanced across all three funnels – Top, Middle, and Bottom. Creating content in collaboration with social media influencers helps at the top while Facebook/Google helps at the bottom. A strong community of 120,000 Instagram followers does the job in the middle. Retention is a less talked about marketing plan but it is often a key element for the longevity of a brand.
Auric has worked out its email marketing strategy with Klaviyo and also, developed proprietary conversation technology to enable WhatsApp convenience for existing customers
Auric Marketing Funnel
The most successful marketing campaign has been Memes – A little cheeky & a little below the belt but On point Messaging with Humour.
Auric is doing over 25,000 orders every month fully online in India. The startup has strong retention and NPS. Here is how Auric’s website users have grown in the last 3 years –
Auric uses Google Analytics, Microsoft Excel, Whatsapp, and Facebook Analytics. It started on the Wix platform and has transitioned to Shopify in November 2021.
Auric – Recognition/Achievements
Auric was recently featured in the hottest 30 D2C startups in Inc42 Plus ’30 Startups to Watch.
Auric – Future Plans
Auric’s vision is to make Better Life for Millennials with Ayurveda. On the brand side, Auric will use the power of content-community-commerce to become part of the attention and conversation of millennials. On the product side, Auric will bring Ayurveda Wellness in foods you eat as well as personal products you apply
Auric – FAQs
What is Auric?
Auric is a Direct to Consumer (D2C) brand that is creating innovative and convenient lifestyle products by blending Ayurveda with the benefits of modern sciences.
Who founded Auric?
Deepak Agarwal is the founder of Auric.
Is Auric an Indian brand?
Yes. Auric is an Indian startup headquartered in New Delhi.
How does Auric make money?
Auric is an online D2C ayurveda brand. It earns money by selling a variety of products like Coconut Water-based Ayurvedic Drinks, Ayurveda-inspired Hot Beverages, and more.
This article is contributed by Sumit Suneja, Managing Partner of Merlin Brands, an urban consumer goods company that owns the leading brands – Rabitat and Headway.
The Covid-19 pandemic has completely disrupted our lives in so many ways. It has changed the way we communicate with each other, work, and even buy things on a daily basis.
This unprecedented scenario has led to brands adopting the Direct-to-consumer model to grow ever since the time the pandemic hit us. Mr. Sumit highlights some key factors driving this change and how D2C brands can make the most of the situation, to thrive and not just survive!
A Paradigm Shift in Consumer Behavior
Covid-19 pandemic has induced a more isolated and contactless way of operating/living, significantly transforming customer preferences. With limited physical movement, consumers are migrating into the virtual environments at a tremendous rate thus accelerating the adoption of digital media & platforms. And it’s unlikely to be coming back to a “non-virtual” set-up, as more and more consumers are drawn in and getting used to the convenient experience provided by online platforms. In addition to being the more obvious safer option, people are preferring to just sit back and shop from the comforts of their homes.
In a nutshell, here are the key factors influencing behavioral changes in consumers during a pandemic –
Digital adoption: More people are shifting to digital platforms for everyday needs.
Mobility preferences: Limiting public transport and unnecessary travel; Greater inclination towards remote working setup.
Purchasing behavior: Shift to online shopping more for convenience and a better experience.
Offline Presence becomes a Liability
In response to evolving customer preferences, more businesses turned towards digital and online platforms as their primary outlet for selling products as compared to traditional brick-and-mortar stores. This process has proven to be a double-edged sword for companies.
Smaller and upcoming brands open to Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) models found the scenario ideal for growing their presence. These brands benefit from the fact that D2C eliminates the role of dealers as companies can get across to consumers directly. However, the legacy brands which have been heavily relying on physical presence and more traditional ways of marketing found it far from ideal. Moreover, the restrictions levied in travel across different parts of the world adversely impacted the supply chain, making businesses look for alternatives.
With more focus on online, social media came into the picture with platforms like Facebook/Instagram acting as a marketplace for sellers fuelling further growth and bringing down Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), at least in the initial phase. This championed the development of the D2C brand ecosystem. Social media platforms are filling the void of online presence for companies that relied primarily on legacy distribution channel partners to reach customers.
As the D2C model became the core of every consumer brand’s marketing strategy, competition intensified among companies. Apart from reaching and communicating with customers directly, brands had to work on creating a unique value proposition driven by brand-building exercises and delivering better quality products. Standing out from the crowd became ever so important with both small/upcoming and larger legacy brands competing in the same platform and space.
The competition can only get stiffer and challenging from here on. Players who are here for short-term gains will face even bigger challenges as customer acquisition costs are bound to further increase. This is inevitable as more and more legacy brands rush towards social media platforms as they try to harness and understand the importance and power of this network in building their sales strategy. Soon advertising costs will have quadrupled, which will eventually push away temporary players who are here for the short run.
Thus, only the serious and long-term players who would not solely rely on social media channels will be able to sustain and make it big as a successful brand. Companies will need to focus on creating a cohesive marketing strategy leveraging other communication channels like email and SMS marketing. These mediums are likely to play a more important and bigger role in the long run in establishing the brand and reaching out to the masses.
Learnings as a D2C brand
One key aspect of building a successful brand that is valued is understanding the importance of customer retention. While companies put in a lot of effort and capital in acquiring new clients, not a lot of focus is given to retaining an existing one. To begin with, it is proven that acquiring new customers is far more expensive than retaining ones. Also, even if your business has a high customer acquisition rate but at the same time it is equally losing out on many existing ones, the overall customer base will remain nearly stagnant. Moreover, having some loyal customers onboard can enhance brand reputation as well as develop a constructive relationship with customers and understand their needs better.
For us, customer retention has been a key factor in driving brand success. To ensure that we bring value for customers and get those recurring purchases, at Rabitat and Headway, we provide benefits such as – doubling the warranty, compliance with European norms, and lower pricing. This helps us to keep the customer acquisition costs down by 40% than our immediate peers.
Getting genuine reviews from the customers and working on it to improve on the company’s shortcomings has helped enhance customers’ experience. Staying in constant touch with the customers through email and messages also helped in building the brand’s trust.
Also, Brands that have transparency throughout their business strategy (production, supply chain, etc.) will be able to build trust and credibility in the long run. D2C allows companies have total control over these various factors for them to sustain with no hindrance in their journey.
Companies trying to shift to D2C from the traditional model might face bigger challenges. They should be clear about what they exactly want, either go solely D2C or go hybrid model (both traditional and D2C). Adopting new processes, training employees, or hiring new ones for the new model can cost a lot of money while ensuring efficiency, profit, and providing value to the customers at the same time.
As the competition is growing one needs to think beyond the current buzz of D2C, work towards building a stronger brand. While building it, one should think in terms of being sustainable and not fly by, think in terms of decades and not years.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by The Natural Wash.
The Natural Wash (TNW) is a personal care brand for skin, hair, and body care products focusing on Ayurvedic modality. The brand offers a plethora of completely natural products such as handmade soaps, hair oil, shampoo, body lotion, facial oil, sunscreen, etc. These products have undergone deep research and are an amalgamation of Ayurveda, herbal ingredients, and modern science.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Akshit Goel (Co-founder/MD, The Natural Wash) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. In this article, you’ll discover how TNW was conceptualized, its business model, revenue, growth and more.
TNW- The Natural Wash is a personal care brand for skin, hair, and body care products focusing on Ayurvedic modality, which already makes it exceptional as most products in the market are chemical-based ones. The brand offers a plethora of completely natural products such as handmade soaps, hair oil, shampoo, body lotion, facial oil, sunscreen, etc. These products have undergone deep research and are an amalgamation of Ayurveda, herbal ingredients, and modern science.
Moreover, the brand has always endeavored to provide a one-of-its-kind experience to its customers with best-in-class, clinically tested beauty products. Excelling in the field while catering to the patrons of nature-based products, TNW envisions to inspire and empower more people as it packages the secrets of the Earth and the magic of nature in its products and focuses on customer satisfaction and acquisition rather than just profits.
TNW always prefers quality over big bucks. The brand wants everyone to appreciate its products for the Ayurvedic goodness, chemical-free formulation, and natural & herbal ingredients.
The Natural Wash – Market/Industry Details
The skincare product market was valued at INR 129.76 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.22% during 2021 – 2025 to reach a projected value of INR 191.09 billion by 2025. On the basis of demographics and how the beauty segment was dominant, it accounted for more than half of the market share in 2017 and is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.
The Natural Wash – Idea and Inspiration
United by similar thinking, upbringing, and passion, Shivangi and Akshit joined hands and came up with products that are cost-effective, chemical-free, and come in handy to people. This is why many of their products are blends of age-old recipes into handy everyday essential products.
Inspired to make people more aware and switch towards a natural and chemical-free life, this Delhi-based homegrown startup was started by Shivangi and Akshit, at the age of 21.
Co-founder, Akshit Goel says -“Fortunately, both of us had a common passion and vision to establish a skin and hair care brand that is cost-effective, natural, and chemical-free. So, we joined hands together and decided to come up with such products. I was inspired by my mother who is fond of organic farming and grows herbs in her terrace garden. My vision for chemical-free and natural products with pure ingredients was embraced by my mother’s practices. While Shivangi was always admired for her grandmother’s flawless skin and natural beauty that was possessed using age-old methods, Indian remedies, and ingredients. This was enough to inspire us and come up with a brand that is natural, organic, and beneficial for both skin and hair. Together, we came up with our brainchild: TNW- The Natural Wash”
The initial phase was very tough. Ingredient suppliers used to deny working with them as no one was interested in working with such low quantities. Akshit used to carry cartons and bags of around 20-30kgs on his head in order to save 50-70 rupees of freight charges.
Shivangi and Akshit, both used to dry the herbs in sunlight. To just be in the sunlight in summer, every day for a minimum of two hours, to stir the herbs continuously. They could not afford to buy an herb drying machine or hire a person who could do this for them.
After the initial two months of their stint, the duo was on the verge of giving up. The tides were tough for them to face alone, and they both almost decided to not continue with it. But ‘the don’t give up attitude’ stopped them from backing out and they continued.
Akshit Goel and Shivangi Goel are the founders of The Natural Wash.
Akshit is responsible for managing day-to-day operations of e-commerce, accounts, and marketing and he is consistent with his efforts to make the brand a great success. Whereas, Shivangi Goel manages the Graphic, Content, and Social media departments. She has studied English Literature at Khalsa College, DU. Akshit Goel has done Bachelor in Business Administration.
Company Size – Currently 50 members and the company also aims to have a team of approximately 125 to 150 members by the end of 2022.
TNW’s work culture and zeal are contiguous and provide the best working environment to shape talent that is still rough on the edges. Colleagues are treated like family here and thus it’s a great learning experience together with everyone.
The Natural Wash – Name, Tagline & Logo
Initially, the founders just started with soaps. They wanted to name it something that included the word “Wash.” As they provided natural products, the duo chose “Nature Wash” and then “The Natural Wash” in a few days.
The Natural Wash Logo
As for the tagline, Akshit & Shivangi wanted something that described the nature of their company, which provides ayurvedic, herbal, and natural products. Keeping the tagline short and simple, they chose ”Dive into Flora” since flora is something natural and comes from the earth.
The Natural Wash – Business Model & Revenue Model
The Natural Wash (TNW) functions on a D2C business model. The company ships its products all over India from different warehouses situated throughout the country. Customers can order TNW products from its website and from almost all the key eCommerce portals. Right now, the startup doesn’t have an offline presence, though it is exploring this space and soon it will launch the products in the offline markets also.
TNW- The Natural Wash personal care brand made over 10 Cr revenue in the first full financial year. The founders invested Rs 2 lakh as an initial investment in the business. Growth came from reinvestment of earnings. Every rupee earned has been reinvested in the business. The startup’s target revenue for the financial year 2021-22 is 40+ Cr. As of now, it is selling out 2500+ units on an average every day.
The Natural Wash – Launch & Marketing Strategies
“It was for our family members and friends who were among our list of first few customers. We started with soaps like charcoal, potato rice, oats and honey, neem, and ubtan soap. Apart from these, we had Rose Water and Lip Balm” – Akshit added.
Some of the key strategies the team employs to make sure the company retains and grows its customer base are sticking to the mantra of providing their patrons with all-natural products, providing customers with cost-effective offers, and making the product accessible to every class of society. TNW makes sure that its internal team is constantly engaged and motivated to deliver its goals in alignment with the companies. Moreover, keeping in mind the market demands and new trends to be up to date to make a mark in the market. Most importantly, the startup invests in quality rather than brand marketing and endorsements.
The best-recorded strategy which has given TNW the most traction and sales is word of mouth. The startup is planning on other marketing strategies as well.
The Natural Wash – Challenges Faced
Speaking about the challenges faced, Mr. Askhit Goel says –
“When the first lockdown happened in March-2020, it was all about keeping ourselves safe from Corona and keeping our spirits high. We got zero support from the employees and the business was closed down. Sales numbers hit zero. Our cash flow was badly hit as there was no way we could stop the recurring costs like rents, maintenance, and salaries. It was very tough to get back on track after the lockdown for the obvious reasons mentioned above. However, we started again with high spirits, and there is no looking back. During the second lockdown, it was pretty normal. Our sales were normal and deliveries were running as smoothly as possible at that time.”
The Natural Wash – Competitors
TNW considers Mamaearth, Wow, Moms & co., The Man’s Company, Juicy Chemistry, Biotique, Kama Ayurveda, Just Herbs, Plum Goodness, Soul Tree, Khadi Naturals, Organic Harvest, and Aroma Magic as its major competitors.
The Natural Wash – Achievements
The Natural Wash has had its share of success and awards, some of them include the White Page award to the company for most admired brand, White Page award dedicated to Mr. Akshit Goel for the most inspirational leader, Amazon, and Flipkart awards for being premium category sellers across. To boot, Akshit has been honored to receive a call from Josh Talks as they chose him to be a speaker on their platform.
Five years down the line, the team aims to make TNW- The Natural Wash the top-selling brand for skin, hair, and body products in the beauty care industry. They are planning to have a brand face soon. TNW wishes to target a larger audience by creating cost-effective products with the goodness of natural ingredients. It plans to launch the baby care range in the month of November 2021, wherein, they are also planning to launch the cosmetics range by the end of FY2021.
The Natural Wash – FAQs
What is The Natural Wash (TNW)?
The Natural Wash is a personal care brand for skin, hair, and body care products focusing on Ayurvedic modality, which already makes it exceptional as most products in the market are chemical-based ones.
Who are the founders of TNW?
Akshit Goel and Shivangi Goel are the founders of The Natural Wash.
How does The Natural Wash make money?
The Natural Wash (TNW) functions on a D2C business model. Customers can order TNW products from its website and from almost all the key eCommerce portals. TNW’s products are ranged from INR 99 to INR 650.
Who are TNW’s competitors?
TNW considers Mamaearth, Wow, Moms & co., The Man’s Company, Juicy Chemistry, Biotique, Kama Ayurveda, Just Herbs, Plum Goodness, Soul Tree, Khadi Naturals, Organic Harvest, and Aroma Magic as its major competitors.
Ashwini
