Herbal and scientifically-tested products are the new must-haves for the beauty conscious and skincare lovers are looking for. Fit and Glow Healthcare spotted the opportunity and introduced a new brand, WOW Life Science, which focuses on health, nutrition, and living in sync with nature. They then went ahead and created a beauty and personal care brand, WOW Skin Science, which focuses on research and bio-actives to develop hair and skin care products.
In an interaction with Indiaretailing Bureau, Manish Chowdhary, Co-Founder, Fit and Glow said, “Although the market is inundated with wellness and beauty products, we were confident that our brand and product concept had a chance. We did not see competition. Instead, we saw huge opportunity. It was because we were bringing to our consumers a very different product concept and brand value. We developed products which contained the best and the purest forms of bio-actives, without any harsh chemicals and preservatives. The uniqueness of our product line is that we have blended our traditional Ayurvedic formulations with Western herbal remedial preparations and modern scientific research.”
“We develop each range of product to address present day skin, hair and wellness issues – triggered by current stress laden lifestyle – which consumers face today. That is why we have unique products like WOW Skin Science Hard Water Defense Shampoo or WOW Skin Science Onion Black Seed Hair Oil,” he added.
Tasting Success
Apple Cider Shampoo, which is the fastest moving product, helped the brand taste success.
“While most of us have known about the benefit of Apple Cider Vinegar for hair, skin and health, nobody was using it in a shampoo. That is why we decided to develop a product that no one had introduced in the market. To offer maximum benefits, we researched extensively on Apple Cider Vinegar. Our research showed that instead of using a pre-made concentrate, if we use the ‘mother of vinegar’ extracted from raw apples from the Himalayas, our formulation will be truly effective. We did that, and rest is history. We have now extended our Apple Cider Vinegar range to include face wash, body wash, health drink and even health supplement,” he stated.
In the US market, the products of the brand have already reached the bestseller status on Amazon USA. Online demand has propelled WOW’s sales to US $1 million per month.
Retail Mapping
The brand started its journey online as the brick-and-mortar space was already cluttered with many brands vying for shelf space and consumer attention.
“It was more agile, and we could reach our consumers faster. Using the digital medium was also more cost effective for a new brand like us. Also using e-commerce platform allowed us to target customers in smaller cities and town. We found that to engage the new generation of consumers – those willing to try new brands and products – digital medium was our best bet,” he asserted.
“We leveraged the potential of e-commerce portals to reach out to maximum number of consumers not just in India but in the US as well. Today, our products are available on all popular shopping sites including Amazon, Nykaa, Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong, Paytm, BigBasket and Snapdeal,” Chowdhary further added.
After making a mark in the online retail space, the brand is looking forward to expanding its presence in brick-and-mortar stores.
“The reason we are looking at expanding offline retail space is to allow our consumers a chance to touch, feel and sample the products, so that they can make an informed purchase,” he said.
Towards the end of 2019, the brand, which is already present on the shelves in various retail outlets like Health & Glow, Nature’s Basket and many more Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, is looking forward to expanding its presence in all the metro cities.
“We will be opening our stores both in malls and high-streets. The average size of our store will be around 200-300 sq. ft.,” he said.
Betting Big on Technology
The brand, which gets 95 percent of its revenue from digital, is utilising the potential of data.
“Data makes our business more relevant. Through data management and driving some key results out of it we have been able to understand and serve our customers better. In fact, it was on the basis of data and insights that today we have bestselling products on popular e-commerce platforms,” Chowdhary said.
“We hope to replicate similar success in offline space using AI-driven data insights,” he added.
The brand, which clocked Rs 140 crore in 2018-2019, is eyeing to end the current fiscal with Rs 250 crore.
