Direct-to-Consumer (D2C), Personal Care, Skin Care, or Hair Care – you might have heard these buzzwords in the news or entrepreneurial space these days. In fact, the beauty and personal care market is one of the fastest growing business segments driven by the demand for environment-friendly and chemical-free products and the rise of the Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) business model.
Well, the revenue of the Indian personal care and beauty industry amounts to US$25 billion approximately in 2022, with market growth expectations at a 5.20% CAGR till 2026. In relation to the total population in the country, these numbers correspond to US$18.09 per-person revenue this year (Source).
For many business owners, this would mean setting up different brands for hair care or skin care products. What about selling them all under one parent company but with different sub-brands underneath? Is it the right move to benefit from 122 million+ expected online beauty shoppers (by 2025 as per a reliable report)?
This is where Innovist came into the picture to offer science-backed range of personal care products – hair, skin, and sunscreen under the D2C model. The brand aims to revolutionize the personal care industry with science-backed, chemical-free products for the masses.
Let’s look at the Innovist’s startup journey, the payment challenges that followed, and how Paytm PG rescued them from the high tides of competition.
Innovist’s Ride from Bare Anatomy to Where It Stands Today
Innovist, as the brand calls itself, is an innovation lab that creates science-backed effective products for skin care, hair care, and sun care. As the parent company, it launched its first brand – Bare Anatomy in 2019 to offer customized hair care products, and there was no looking back. Now, it has three brands under its shade, namely Chemist at Play and Sun Scoop, along with the first one.
The DNA of all three brands of Innovist has the same ideology of transparency and science-backing. In fact, it is one of the few startups in the country that began its journey through a Research Lab and a manufacturing facility.
Customers loved their range of hair care products deeply rooted in science and ceramides-based skin care and sunscreens. But as a D2C brand, they had their fair share of challenges, including:
- Enhanced competition in the market
- Increased liability of information shared with third-party vendors/suppliers
- Complicated supply chains
- Lack of trust in the payment process involved
- Complex steps related to payment gateway integration
For the founders at Innovist, the payment-related challenges took the center stage and made them realize that the core problem lies in customer’s trust in their payment process. They wanted to improve the customer experience with the right payment solution.
The ride to select the best payment solution for their customers was quite bumpy, full of ups and downs until they found Paytm Payment Gateway. Here’s what happened before Innovist had a tryst with Paytm.
More About Innovist’s Experience from Not-so-good to the Best Payment Gateway Selection
Put yourself into the Innovist’s founders’ shoes and then think –
‘How long do you expect the payment gateway integration process to take before you can start accepting orders? One day, two days, or a few days?’
Ideally, that’s enough time for you to get done with the technical side of payment gateway integration into your brand website. But unfortunately, the previous experience of Rohit Chawla – CEO, Innovist, was not as per the expectations. Unlike the simple payment gateway integration process, the team at Innovist went through multiple integration steps and tutorials that were quite complex for a non-tech startup.
Also, the payment success rate delivered wasn’t quite satisfactory. It made them face payment failures and reduced customer retention, which is something they couldn’t bear for much longer.
In their quest for the best payment gateway and the best-of-the-best payment experience for their customers, they found Paytm Payment Gateway.
Paytm’s Reach and Trust Among the Masses Meant Success for Innovist
Again, put yourself in the shoes of customers buying a personal care product from a newly-established brand like Innovist. Even if everything looks good to them and they are quite interested to try using the product, their journey may end at the brand’s checkout page where they leave without shopping.
The reason – any sort of suspicion of payment fraud or simply the lack of trust in the payment process that follows.
The same was true in the Innovist’s story about ensuring the best buying experience for their customers.
How can a new brand build trust in the eyes of its consumers? – By partnering with a payment brand that a majority of their buyers already know and trust.
Paytm, being the pioneer of digital payments in the country, also offers a wide range of payment products for businesses, one of which is Paytm Payment Gateway. It is power-packed with a high payment success rate, the least payment failure, and the best-in-class security for transactions. As icing on the cake, there is customer’s trust in Paytm PG.
What followed was a fruitful journey of improved results for Innovist in the form of high revenue and an even higher payment success rate.
What did Paytm PG Bring to the Table for Innovist and its Brands?
- Improved success rate from 50% to around 90%
- Customer’s trust in the brand as they trusted Paytm
- High security of payment transactions
- Rise in first-time prepaid transactions, particularly via credit cards
Interesting Read: What makes Paytm PG the Best in India?
Be Like Innovist and Build a Brand for the Masses with Paytm
As we celebrate Indian startups, the Innovist’s story is the epitome of perseverance for a startup’s journey and the related crests and troughs toward growth. If you also run a startup or have plans to do so, it is important to improve as you go and grow.
Interesting Read: Founder Stories: How Dipali Scaled Super Smelly?
Want to make the payment experience of your customers better than it is? Join hands with Paytm for Business.
