Bespoke Ayurvedic beauty brand Just Herbs, which ventured into the retail space in June 2017, is on an expansion spree. The brand has opened its fourth exclusive retail store in the country at Autumn Leaf Jubilee Hills. Interestingly, this is the second Just Herbs store that has been launched in Hyderabad in the last six months.
The flagship brand of Chandigarh-based APCOS Naturals, Just Herbs started operations in November 2013 as an online-first venture through its e-store ‘www.justherbs.in’. Within a short span, the brand has created a credible space in the domestic as well as international Ayurvedic beauty markets owing to its highly effective and skin-friendly product offerings. In addition to its e-store and retail outlets, Just Herbs products are sold on all leading e-commerce websites in India as well as on Sephora.com in the South East Asian Region. The products are exported to Vietnam, the GCC region, UK and USA and are also sold at Winners and Marshalls in Canada.
Elaborating on the reason for launching a second store in Hyderabad, Arush Chopra, CEO & Co-Founder, Just Herbs said, “Hyderabad is the fourth largest market for our online operations. When we opened our first store in the city in February 2018 at the Forum Sujana Mall at Kukatpally, we expected our existing online customers to patronize it. Interestingly, our online audience remained online while we witnessed new customers coming to us at the store. With the growing demand for products and looking at the huge market potential in Hyderabad, we felt it was the right time to launch another store in the city.”
Just Herbs has opened this store in partnership with Autumn Leaf. Interestingly, Soumya Reddy, whose family owns Autumn Leaf Jubilee Hills, is an old customer of Just Herbs. So, when a space came up within the Autumn Leaf premises and they were contemplating what new to offer to our customers, the idea of partnering with Just Herbs struck her.
As per Soumya, “While the store at Forum Sujana Mall is doing great, it primarily receives customers from IT and business sectors due to the demography of the place. Just Herbs at Autumn Leaf, located amongst age-old trees and bushes, would attract nature lovers who are the primary clientele for Autumn Leaf. I am sure that Just Herbs products would quickly become our customers’ favorites due to the purity and naturalness that they reflect while simultaneously being extremely effective.”
Chopra added, “When Soumya approached us with the idea of launching a store at Autumn Leaf, we were happy to explore this partnership as she is a Just Herbs evangelist and understands the brand ethos well. Moreover, Autumn Leaf attracts nature lovers, who are the ideal customers for our brand. Therefore, for the first time we have opened a store in a partnership model.”
Just Herbs currently offers around 70 SKUs of skincare, hair, bath and body products and all of those will be available at the new store. The brand’s bestsellers include the Kimsukadi Tail – Glow Boosting Facial Oil, the Silksplash Neem-Orange Rehydrant Ayurvedic Face Wash, the Gotukola Indian Ginseng Rejuvenating Beauty Elixir Facial Serum, the 8-in-1 Root Nourishing Amla Neem Shampoo and the Tender Touch Body Radiance Oil.
Known for its customer-centric approach to product development, the brand created history last year by launching its Herb-Enriched Skin Tint as the first crowd-sourced beauty product in India. Going forward, Just Herbs plans to launch more products through crowd-sourcing.
After Hyderabad, the brand aims to expand its offline coverage to cities in India with considerable trade volumes. Chopra added, “While we had gathered considerable trust amongst our customers when we were selling only through online channels, the offline stores have helped us further position ourselves as a credible brand that is here to stay. This has increased revenues for our online business as well. However, I am not in a hurry to flood the market with our stores. For us it is more important to maintain consistent services at all our platforms – online and offline. We plan to expand our reach in major cities of India with the launch of 3-4 stores annually.”
