We are aiming to be a holistic e-commerce platform for all Ayurvedic products: Sandeep Bali
Baidyanath backed Allayurveda.com is all set to mark its wider footprint in the domestic and international market while leveraging the early mover advantage in the online market space for Ayurveda products. After revamping its E-Commerce portal the company is focusing on bringing more fitness and beauty brands onboard from US, UK and Middle-East. Presently it has around 500 brands on board and is in the process of bringing more 200 brands onboard in one year down the line along with launching an app by mid of 2018. In a conversation Sandeep Bali, CEO, allAyurveda.com, spoke about the future moves of the company to Wellnessindia.com.
What led you to revamp the Allayurveda.com?
Over the years we were just selling Baidyanath products on the allAyurveda.com in India and across the world but lately we realized that there is some room to innovate to benefit the consumer from and we don’t want didn’t want to limit our offerings to Baidyanath products. User behavior is such that the user wants to buy all the products wants to buy products from one place so allAyurveda was made with the intention to provide all the products across all the categories to users across the world. Simultaneously we were getting a lot of interest from the international markets like US, UK and Canada though we don’t really actively market over there. We do get a lot of business from these markets. Along with the products it is also the community and the content that we can educate people with.
After revamp what are the upgradations at allAyurveda.com?
Last year we chose to revamp the website in terms of the technology, user experience and new courier methods. We have also changed the model slightly different to more managed market place with having around 500 brands in broader number of categories. In health tech space we can see more devices coming on but in Ayurveda most of the products just making the online store fronts but nobody is innovating so we decided to do something innovative and launch a marketplace for Ayurveda products.
All the contents that we have online are selected by the experts and Ayurvedic doctors. For online consultation we do have four to five doctors in partnership with Kapiva. We are planning to launch our app may be in the mid of next year but before this we are planning to launch Chatbot or symptoms analysis app.
The content and community plays a major role as part of the eco system that we are trying to build. We are aiming to be comprehensive holistic E-commerce platform for all natural, organic and Ayurvedic wellness products and contents in India.
Which are the products largely been demanded on your E-commerce portal?
Digestive, skin care, sexual wellness, the hair care are some of the most demanded categories on the portal. There is a lot of craze about fitness and beauty products in India and its improving all the time. People are leaning more about natural products and there lie a lot of opportunities. In that sense we will also be able to provide a platform for the small manufacturers from across the country to reach a broader Indian market. At the same time we will be able to bring onboard several international fitness and beauty brands.
Which are the factors contributing to the boom in online traction for Ayurveda products?
There is all round support for Ayurveda products from the government viz-a-viz the industry is moving naturally. Patanajali has really helped push Ayurveda into the mainstream in domestic and internationally. There are some more such players coming into the market and its further going help boost the eco system.
On our portal the user acquisition has been improving MOM by 20 percent. Overall we have exceeded 100,000 numbers of users from across the globe out of which 75 percent is from India and 25 percent is from globe. And the retention rate is of 20-30 percent of the total number of users. The 18-45 age groups which seek more of personal care and sexual wellness products are contributing the higher traction. All the leading metros including Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore among others are leading good demand along with tier III and IV towns. It’s 50:50 ratio of demand across metros to small towns. Since we have revamped our portal we are growing by 10-15 percent MOM in terms of revenue.
Are you also tying up with Ayurvedic pharma stores for consumer convenience?
Across metros to tier II towns we will be tapping offline partners in 2-3 months. We are experimenting it with the help of our sister company Kapiva which has a lot of offline stores in Mumbai in which we are having our co-branded campaigns running. At the same time we are exploring some other opportunities for offline distributorship.
Which could be the sub categories in fitness and beauty segment that you would bring on allAyurveda.com?
We could enter in some of the fitness supplements, protein powders, alternatives to multi vitamins and all that coming into India. Along with this green tea, leaf packs and all that does well abroad and I don’t see many of those brands in India. Overall one year down the line we should have at least 200 more brands on board. Currently we have one warehouse in Kolkata.
Where do you see the future of allAyurveda in three to five years?
We will set a benchmark of the technical innovation in this category and we will create an ecosystem which will help users of Ayurveda to get more educated about it and interact among each other and experts online and generate user content for their own consumption and the community. We will also be present in multiple locations in the world. In the coming months we are planning to launch some of the major fitness and beauty brands from US, UK and Middle- East. We are planning to raise fund in the first half of 2018.
