Aanan Khurma is the Founder and CEO of Wellversed – a technology enabled platform for creation and growth of Wellness Brands. Aanan has pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Punjab Engineering College. Later to that, he indulged in a Healthcare Innovation Program from Massey University. This led him to pursue Stanford Biodesign Program from Stanford University where he specialized in Innovation, Design Thinking, Business Strategy, Medical Device Innovation, and Healthcare Innovation.
In today’s world, there has been a new pattern that is seen amongst consumers. This new pattern consists of different buying decisions than before the hit of the pandemic. And, it is mostly led by the digitalization and technological advancements present in today’s world.
When it comes to all Consumer Wellness Brands, the first thing to consider when we talk about the future face of them is a face that is led by digitalization. After the pandemic, a new normal way of living has been seen amongst the consumers. This new way of living consists of both online and offline interfaces used by them. Since the pandemic hit the earth, there has also been a sudden surge amongst people who want to sincerely maintain their lifestyle by eating and following a fit and wellness-infused mindset. This can be considered as the biggest selling point of Consumer Wellness Brands.
More and more Consumer brands are rising in the market, all of them are targeting a small portion of the gap which were created by other mainstream brands. There have been a lot of new emerging D2C Wellness Brands as well. These wellness brands contain products which are suitable to provide a healthy lifestyle to their consumers. Starting from fitness equipment to wellness supplements and food products, mostly everything is present there in the market for the consumers to access.
But still, in India, there is a significant room for the old players to grow and new Consumer Wellness players to join the market. This sudden growth of D2C brands is seeing a revolution altogether. Covid-19 brought a paradigm shift in the consumer market but it has only resulted in the rise of the Consumer Wellness sector.
In today’s world, Wellness brands are not selling their products, but they are empowering people to be healthier and better. More and more people are shifting to a plant-based diet, and veganism because of the trending rise of the vegetarian lifestyle in India. More people are drawn towards Keto-diet and its benefits as well. In that same way, Ayurveda has also started to hold a lot of space in the D2C Wellness sector as well. The people have started to believe better on the power of ancient herbs and its capacity to heal people without proper medication.
Many of the Consumer Wellness brands have taken a one step ahead by providing doorstep and one-day delivery for their consumers.
The main factor of all these brands are their core beliefs with which the consumer base is able to connect on a deeper and emotional level. These brands incorporate the belief that without having a lot of medicine which can harm our body in return, we need to make sure that our body is well-equipped with nutrients to fight off any possible diseases in the near future. There has been a very important urge to be completely healthy. Even in the fashion & beauty sector, cruelty-free skincare and haircare products have been on demand rather than make-up products and chemically-induced creams. Only the products with natural ingredients are being selected mostly by the consumers. The food market totally consists of different nutrition supplements, and food products which can help to achieve their perfectly desired lifestyle. Rather than buying junk food, people are going for calorie free products, vegan meat, healthy breakfasts and so on.
Also, when it comes to being physically fit and fitness products, the gym enthusiasts are starting to believe in the natural way of building their bodies rather than going for artificial steroids.
All of these make us see that there has been a new shift in the mindset of the people. The old mindset who was never even busy comprehending their daily lifestyle has taken a step back to actually think and change it to some extent. And this gives a great consumer market to the Consumer Wellness brands.
Due to the rise of online Shopping, brands have started to change their focus on the D2C channels. This gives them a lot more control over customer touch points rather than being controlled by the retailers.
Also, the recent Budget released by the Government in 2022 will help in allocating the resources that will benefit the retail sector. The supply chain and logistics will especially benefit from the allocation of infrastructure. This will also help in the boost of the D2C sector.
Hence, through all these things we can say that there has been a shift in the buying nature of the consumers after the ending of the pandemic. This buying nature has come from the things which they have faced in the past two years. And, hence this new buying pattern may never change for the consumers. And that is why, the Consumer Wellness sector will keep on growing for a very long time till it sees any less growth.