The pandemic-incited lockdown time frame was a fascinating time for the advantaged purchaser base. With telecommuting turning into another standard and a ton of time close by, individuals enjoyed personal growth techniques to keep themselves involved. What's more, skincare arose to be the greatest recipient, surpassing the excellence and individual consideration classification. India's mass skincare saw amazing growth during the pandemic, driven by the D2C (direct to shopper) channel. Furthermore, WOW Skin Care Company is one such brand that got a ton of buyer clout during this period. Know about how WOW Skin Science made its way into the market and attracted consumers with natural products. #TWN
The pandemic-incited lockdown time frame was a fascinating time for the advantaged purchaser base. With telecommuting turning into another standard and a ton of time close by, individuals enjoyed personal growth techniques to keep themselves involved. What's more, skincare arose to be the greatest recipient, surpassing the excellence and individual consideration classification. The healthy skin industry in India is measured at INR12,000 crore as of May 2022, according to Anand Ramanathan, accomplice buyer, Deloitte India. The class is supposed to develop at a CAGR of 6% to arrive at INR25,000 crore by 2025. Inside this, top-notch skincare contributes almost 10% of the market, and the rest is produced by mass.
India's mass skincare saw amazing growth during the pandemic, driven by the D2C (direct to shopper) channel. Furthermore, WOW Skin Care Company is one such brand that got a ton of buyer clout during this period.
It is a Bengaluru-based startup established in 2015, beginning with its D2C station. Yet, the organization immediately made itself accessible on every driving stage, says its fellow benefactor, Manish Chowdhary.
WOW Skin Science came to almost INR100 crore in six years of operations (counting pandemic years). The organization developed more than 1,400% in the main year of the pandemic. Body Cupid Pvt Ltd, the parent organization of WOW Skin Science, has detailed incomes worth INR99 crore and misfortunes of INR8 crore as of FY21. The organization has still not posted its FY22 numbers. Nonetheless, Chowdhary claims that incomes touched the figure of INR500 crore as of March (FY22). However, it is still in losses.
The organization raised its Series-C round of financing in FY21 from Delhi-based private-value firm, ChrysCapital. It invested USD50 million, or INR375 crore, in WOW Skin Science, which prompted the valuation of the organization to hit INR900 crore. In May 2022, WOW Skin Science raised its second round of funds from a Singapore-based sovereign abundance store, GIC, for an undisclosed amount of money.
In any case, industry sources think that post this round, the organization's valuation is supposed to be USD400 million - USD420 million (around INR3,100 crore - INR3,200 crore). Expressing the organization's standpoint, Chowdhary expresses, "We at WOW are excited to welcome GIC in our movement towards turning into a 'place of cherished brands'." While the skincare section has developed, WOW Skin Science's growth has been completely incredible. The organization has taken advantage of the ideal mix of valuing and item equations.
Manish Chowdhary claims the organization's prosperity is driven by unambiguous regular ingredients liked by customers.
"We launched as an enhancement brand a long time back. Before long, we moved into the beauty space. I used to travel to comprehend what items are working for purchasers, and in light of that, we launched our apple cider vinegar range," says Chowdhary. "We understood that buyers in India keep on leaning toward regular and natural ingredients, regardless of whether the efficacy is slower. Our apple cider range keeps on being one of the most pursued till date," he adds. Chowdhary is certain about how he might interpret customer inclinations. "At the point when we were hoping to launch our aloe vera range, we understood that each item in the market had a few added substances in it, which isn't even the original color of the aloe gel from the plant. Our item is nearly 99% just gel with no aroma or synthetic substances, which is what customers value," he says.
The organization right now has almost 13 ingredient-based catalogs in its portfolio, covering almost 300+ products across 800+ SKUs (stock-keeping units). Aside from apple cider and aloe vera, WOW Skin Science was one of the trailblazers in bringing the red onion black seed to India, which is very well known for its hair fall-control properties.
The ingredient selection is reliant upon in-house researchers and the formulation teams of the organization. The team conducts almost eight focus group conversations for every item, where little clusters of buyers who could be supporters or even the ones who might not like the item are contacted. Each discussion group includes 20-100 individuals, depending upon the item. Based on the criticism from each group conversation, items go through correction cycles before, at last, being made available in the market.
Right now, WOW Skin Science requires about six and nine months to launch an item/product from the planning phase to the racks. It is working with 15 manufacturers on a legally binding contract. However, the organization intends to have its own assembling plants, two of them set up, in the following two or three quarters. It is moving towards its own assembling plants to have better command over the inventory and quality of products. The organization will utilize half amount of the assets raised for this move.
Probably the greatest benefit that assisted WOW Skin Science was the utilization of D2C channels. Chowdhary says there are two sets of organizations accessible in the business; conventional brands and YouTube/social media brands. WOW Skin Science falls in the media class as a WOW skin science creative agency. What's more, perhaps the greatest undertaking for New Age brands is to make applicable content via social media and reach the right buyers, regardless of geology. WOW Skin Science at present seals 90% of deals through web-based channels. This is additionally divided into D2C and commercial centers. The rest of the deals are sealed offline. Out of the total internet-based sales of the organization, 35% comes from its D2C channel, and the rest from commercial centers like Amazon, Nykaa, and so forth. The organization has a recurrent shopper base of 60% yearly.
While Chowdhary didn't reveal the specific order value for D2C and commercial centers, he said they are, for the most part, 80% higher than the D2C channel. The items have a masstige price tag, somewhere in the range of INR349 and INR499. While the web and D2C beauty market is packed with brands priced in a comparable section, WOW Skin Science is maybe one of only a handful of exceptional brands zeroing in on ingredient-based collections well defined for every beauty concern.
The 10% offline sales of the organization come from 30,000 retail locations, traversing across the broad exchange, magnificence expert retailers (not Kiranas), and present-day retail locations (general stores and hypermarkets).
"While we are a part of YouTube’s age of brands, we know that this industry is driven by the offline channel. Thus, that is one of our focus areas too. We are planning to extend our offline reach to 100,000 stores in the following two years," says Chowdhary. He accepts that while this is very difficult, the significance of the offline channel makes this focus imperative for the development of the organization. "We didn't confront such a large number of difficulties while attempting to get into the offline channel. While we are new to this channel, just two years old, our wholesalers love us, as we always provide them with higher margins by almost 5%-7%," he adds.
Chowdhary says that higher margins are a purposeful choice made by the organization to break into the distribution channel. As the organization has long-term objectives for its offline extension, at last, once it can give many volumes as conventional brands, cutting down the margins also will be doable. To grow its offline presence, the organization has additionally onboarded famous actresses like Kareena Kapoor Khan and Bhumi Pednekar as brand envoys.
The personal care and beauty market developed dramatically over the pandemic period. It pulled in perhaps the biggest number of investments in two years, thanks to the repeatable nature of its products and wow skin science investors i.e., customers. Aside from groceries, drinks, and food, beauty & personal care have a decent contribution to each family. The repeatability is now and again as high as every other month.
According to Chowdhury, "I believe it's a jam-packed market. This is somewhat new for us. We are in a jumbled zone at this moment. Capital will be critical. We got off building the brand modest. I truly believe it will turn out to be exceptionally cutthroat. Also, I feel capital and product will be the champ in the long haul."
According to Ramanathan of Deloitte, "Normal order value is about INR250 to INR350 for mass brands. Also, for the mid-section, it is about INR550-INR700. The greatest benefit is that there are bunches of little sections now accessible to be focused on. Furthermore, customers are responsive to specialty marketing, given the D2C entrance of the category. Likewise, there is a ton of inclination for natural brands. Consolidating the two, there's a niche accessible for brands to target utilizing D2C. Likewise, given the expense of D2C is somewhat less expensive than setting up your own channel. It, in a real sense, requires a long time for the latter, while the former can include a quantifiable presence within 3-6 months." While brand revelation and investing are more difficult online, when the shopper knows what they need, the recurrent purchasing has expanded.
As per the official website of WOW Skin science, there are a lot of reviews given by their verified buyer. Crystal G. wrote a review, “I have tried all of the body washes from this amazing company and wow this one is great! Smells like real fresh-cut roses and leaves my skin soft and glowing! Perfect plant-based vegan product for me! Thank you”. Jennifer M wrote, “WOW Skin Science is a company that goes the distance in selling high-quality products, with natural ingredients that are good for the skin, for the mind, body, and soul. Everything they make is done with integrity, with top-notch natural ingredients. Their packaging is beautiful, you absolutely will become a lifelong customer if your try any of their products!”
While WOW Skin Science is trying to become a place of cherished brands, probably the greatest opportunity for the brand is to get acquired by one of the main conventional organizations in the portion. Think of Marico getting the acquisition of Beardo. Ramanathan accepts that acquisition by conventional brands can be anticipated. "Any category which is subject to optional pay can anticipate acquisitions in the following couple of years. In the beauty market, customary brands clearly would need to have a wide variety of specialty brands, at different price tags, without creating them starting from the earliest stage," he says.
"We will see a filtration over the long run of some sort. Out of 10, you will have two great winners and three doing nicely well. Also, five would struggle. That is something bound to happen. Clearly, great resources will constantly get subsidized. Great brands will constantly get acquired. So that is something which we'll find in the following year and a half," finishes up Chowdhary.