A Believer In Everything Organic Social media has always been a great way for us to reach out to our customers and communicate with them, says Pritesh Asher, co-founder and CEO, Juicy Chemistry
By S Shanthi
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Juicy Chemistry's journey started with just Pritesh Asher, co-founder and CEO, Juicy Chemistry and Megha Desai Asher, co-founder and COO, Juicy Chemistry and a Facebook page, literally. At the time, social media was beginning to take grip and the brand organically grew because of that.
"We later shifted to our own website and started working on our digital presence even more. Social media has always been a great way for us to reach out to our customers and communicate with them," says Pritesh Asher.
Even today the startup uses social media to directly communicate with its customers about what it stands for and why they do what they do. "It has always been very important for us to be open and honest with our community and our audience can definitely connect to our authenticity," adds Asher.
Research, he believes, is at the core of the company's product development process. It takes into account trends, customer feedback and inputs, and keeps apprised of the latest research to understand what it is that the market truly needs.
That is why it took the co-founders roughly two years to finish off the research and develop their first product. During this time, they interacted with a lot of people to get an understanding of what 'organic' means to the people and what kind of products they are really looking for.
Today, the company is also expanding offline and has 4 brand-exclusive outlets. It believes that omnichannel is the only way to scale successfully even though it may have some challenges such as developing products that have a longer shelf life, building brand-exclusive outlets, and looking into store-in-store models.
The company also wants to double down on its efforts of expanding offline touchpoints and omnichannel presence. "Our goal is to be available in 500 touchpoints in the next 3-4 months and we want to ensure increased brand visibility through our brand-exclusive outlets. We also intend to pursue meaningful partnerships with boutique and niche stores via a store-in-store model," says Asher.
The skin and haircare brand has also recently forayed into cosmetics with the launch of Color Chemistry and entered the wellness category as well. "We want to build on our promise of giving a holistic organic experience to our customers. Our ECOCERT certification has been a huge asset when it comes to the export market," he says.
It is presently available in over 15 countries and aims to expand its portfolio in markets like the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. At present, the startup exports to 20 different countries and has 7 distribution channels in countries such as South Africa, Nepal, Australia, France, the US, and Singapore.
"Sustainable growth is vital at Juicy Chemistry. We are looking to increase our global presence. Being certified by ECOCERT, we do feel we have an advantage given the increased level of consumer awareness overseas. We want to enter American and European markets - particularly France, Italy and Germany, and capitalize on our existing growth in Australia as well," says Asher.
FACT SHEET
- Online platform resulting in maximum revenue: Company website
- Turnover for FY 2022-23: INR 28 crore
- Split between offline and online sales: 1:3
- Year of Inception: 2014
- Team size: 80
- Customer Repeat ratio: 60%
- Amount of external funding raised: $7 million
