Fuschia by VKare was born out of its parent company Vkare Bio Sciences in 2013. Since its inception, Fuschia by VKare is consistently evolving and has established itself as a brand dedicated to natural, handmade skincare products. From natural ingredients to manufacturing process, from unique packaging styles to eco-friendly policies, Fuschia by VKare stands apart from most of the conventional cosmetic brands.
BWDisrupt Team Interacts With Fuschia by VKare Founders and Spoke to Them
How did the idea come to start? What are the unique key features/services?We started off as a team of doctors with an inclination towards skincare in a natural way. Having studied the never ending market of skincare products in India and abroad we realised that most of the labels were fraught with harsh chemicals. To our surprise, the majority of customers were more or less unaware of the ingredients they were feeding their skin. However, of late many global brands have come up with the idea of natural skincare. Though the idea of chemical free skincare has been widely accepted by our Indian customer base but ‘natural skincare’ still remains a blanket term for many. The ever growing demand for and existing confusion about ‘natural skincare’ have been strategically exploited by lot of labels. Just adding the label of Natural / Herbal / Ayurvedic doesn’t make it so, the ingredient list is what will decide the fact. Looking at the scenario, we decided to promote ‘natural skincare’ as products essentially free of SLS, Parabens, Pthalates, Mineral oils, Synthetic colours & fragrances and hence the inception of ‘FUSCHIA’.
‘Fuschia’ was born out of its parent company Vkare Bio Sciences in 2013. Three years on and Fuschia has been consistently evolving and has established itself as a brand dedicated to natural, handmade skincare products. We started with natural, handmade soaps (initially 10 variants, now expanded to 50+ variants) and today we have range of skincare including Day Cream with SPF 15, Anti-ageing Night Cream, Foot Cream, Intense Moisturizers ( 5 variants) , Face & Body Scrubs (4 variants), Bath Salts (7 variants), Face Masks (5 variants), Face Gels (5 variants), Skin Soothers ( 8 variants), Mud Masks (2 variants), Serums (5 variants), Body Mists (8 variants) and Cleopatra’s Secret Body Bath.
We have kept our manufacturing process ‘Handmade’. So our production batches are small and this also ensures that our products reach our valuable customers in their freshest form. Our constant efforts to provide our customers the best for their skin and at the same time contributing towards saving our ecosystem from harsh chemicals makes our products a little pricier but still affordable as compared to the global brands.
Fuschia truly aligns with the spirit of its parent company:
“For we really care…”Funding status & monetization modelWe are a self-funded, bootstrapped organization. We work under the following models:
1. E-retail channel: Brand Fuschia is available at more than 100 e-commerce portals which supply all across India. We also have our own eCommerce store with pan-India coverage.
2. Collaboration with subscription boxes is another distribution channel that we have tapped.
3. Retail stores and modern trade is another forte we are trying to venture into.
Traction details, future plans and marketing plans
Since our launch in 2013 we have been growing at a rate exceeding 100% YoY and are seeing more than 50% of our sales being generated from repeat customers. The same was recognized as Indian e-Retail Awards 2016 where we won the award for being the brand with outstanding e-Retail Performance in Beauty and Personal Care Segment.
We are in a continuous phase of expansion in our product range and have plans to bring in various new categories in coming few months.
Our future plans are to have Exclusive Brand Outlets and Franchisee in coming years across India.
Challenges faced since inceptionBeing a team of medicos, manufacturing skincare products was not our forte. It was a challenge researching on production of such a range. With great efforts and lot of technical support from people associated with the field we started off with this humongous task of making ‘Fuschia’. Since our launch we have had limited financial resources and with no investors we stuck to being bootstrapped. It was not an easy job to sell a new skincare brand in this very competitive market, & to the customers with ample knowledge and affinity to the existing big names in the industry. When it came to marketing and promotion of the brand, paucity of funds once again stood in the way.
Our presence was solely online initially and the dynamics of online market, ever changing rulings and guidelines on selling of skincare products were a big hurdle. As we had no physical presence in the form of stores and outlets this made things worse for us and we did face a big dip. Last but not the least, we were trying to compete with the leading brands in the industry knowing the fact that we couldn’t beat their presence, pricing and popularity. The only thing we had to offer all through was the ‘QUALITY’ & “Distinct Product Variants” and these are things we have never compromised on. Despite the challenges, what kept us going was the increasing love and trust we won from our customers and that did the marketing for us. Our consistent quality has brought us where we are today.
Market size & opportunity According to International market research agencies, personal care industry demand in this segment was over $7.6 billion (approx Rs 50,000 crore) in 2012 and is expected to reach $13.2 billion (approx Rs 80,000 crore) by 2018, growing at a CAGR of 9.6 per cent from 2012 to 2018. Indian consumers are now more aware and conscious of their health & beauty choices, and there is a growing demand for chemical free skincare products and our brand caters to the needs of this health conscious segment. Our belief is in our potential of growth in near future by entering into various domains of Retail Segment, Gifting Solutions for corporates, wedding and special occasions for skin enthusiasts.
