Market trends and consumer preferences have metamorphosed largely and the argument centres itself on natural vs. synthetic products.
People are demanding products that are preferably organic, natural, and can boost their immune systems.
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“The pandemic of COVID-19 made people realize the importance of building a good immune system to safeguard themselves from viral attacks. It also resulted in a greater surge in the search for health-building equipment and support, resulting in their sale.
As far as the Nutraceutical market is concerned, it has already existed in India for almost forever with the ancient wisdom called Ayurveda. It is only now that people have realized the importance of consuming essential nutrition since the pandemic.
We live in a world where food is unhealthy, our lifestyle is sedentary, and on top of that, the stress we endure in day-to-day life is enormous,” says Sujit Jain, Chairman & MD, Netsurf Communications Pvt. Ltd.
Post the overuse of synthetic chemicals in the late 1990-2000s, an increasing number of consumers have been seeking ancient remedies for wellness purposes. In fact, buyers are moving towards responsible lifestyle and have realized that their everyday regime is devoid of nutrients most needed for well-rounded health.
“We launched the brand Naturamore in the year 2004. As per the market outreach, we had at that time, we started selling the products via our direct sellers in the tier-II and tier-III markets. We have seen the combination of the Naturamore products and direct selling creating miracles in the rural markets. The first-time buyers are mostly driven by the trust & goodwill of the brand and of the direct seller who is pitching it to them. However, once the loyalty is built it is near to inelastic in the rural markets. Even today almost 60% of our turnover of Naturamore products comes from tier-II and tier-III towns.
Consumers being health conscious these days look for the claims like Vegan, Non-GMO, plant-based, etc. The goodwill of a brand, claims, and ingredients play a vital role in making buying decisions for health products,” explained Sujit.
However, despite its presence in the e-commerce market, Netsurf still retains its organic traffic. Mr. Jain says, “Even if the rural and semi-urban populations use smartphones, it is very unlikely that they will buy a nutraceutical product after simply watching its promotion on social media or YouTube! We are still in an age where face-to-face conversation, the trust factor, and relationship with the retailer play the best roles when it comes to retailing products like Naturamore in such geo-pockets.”
The direct selling company is one of the few in the country that have been able to beat the economic slowdown following the pandemic with an approximate INR 419 crore turnover in 2020-21. It saw a 75% increase in its core of direct sellers during the COVID pandemic in spite of the challenges faced by the brand during the phase. With a customer base of 2.5 million, Netsurf has expanded into 63 categories of organic product offerings.
Netsurf entered urban markets in the year 2003 and soon realised that consumer habits shifted to more eco-friendly chemical free organic products. In response to such changing trends in the market, the D2C giant equipped itself with the launch of the Netsurf Network app, which saw 6.5 lakh downloads, as of last year.
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