Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, several companies have suffered large losses or shut down while others turned to stay relevant in the market.
These companies include the New Delhi-based brand D2C . The essential oils brand – founded by Tanaya Sarma and Amis Ahmed in 2018 – faced many challenges.
As an MTech graduate in biotechnology, Tanaya met her co-founder and co-founder, Amis, at the Vellore Institute of Technology. In 2013 the duo Aaidah Life Sciences Pvt Ltd.
Aaidah – the pharmaceutical company – used to produce black seed oil in capsule form, among other things, and sell it throughout Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh.
Get in touch with Speaking Herbs “It was run as a pharmaceutical company. We had distributors and retail stores that sold our products. We also sold through Amazon. But it didn’t work out so well for us, ”says Tanaya.
After failing to scale the pharmaceutical business, they decided to focus on something else. After realizing that most mainstream brands weren’t selling natural products, the duo decided to start Speaking Herbs in 2018.
“We got good reviews, but sales weren’t there. So we decided to take our black seed oil, develop other products and start a new brand, ”says Tanaya. Connect with Speaking Herbs
The Speaking Herbs website operated by Aaidah Life Sciences launched in October 2018 with four SKUs – Black cumin oil, jojoba oil, sweet almond oil, and a sample pack consisting of all small bottles of these oils.
Black Seed Oil, one of Speaking Herbs’ best-selling products
She says, “As biotechnology students, we understand the back labels, and many oils contain more minerals than the actual herb.”
“It was a really good decision to go online. We started to get more visibility compared to retail stores. More and more people were using our brand, giving us feedback and even ideas for developing new products, ”she adds.
The duo have invested between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 20 lakh in the business and have also started a flower water line. The brand sells at least 15 oil variants and four water variants.
Currently, Speaking Herbs has a total of 49 SKUs of oils and flower waters, including Argan, eucalyptus and lavender oils as well as rose and peppermint water and lemongrass hydrosols.
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“To educate people about essential oil usage, we have product categories based on topics such as hair loss, dandruff control, and anti-acne oils, among others,” says Tanaya.
The brand claims to source raw materials directly from farmers and has also partnered with a Delhi-based manufacturer for production.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the brand sold at least 3,000 units a month. However, between April and June, sales were near zero due to strict lockdowns, causing manufacturing and distribution issues.
Speaking Herbs has also outsourced most of its technical development to freelance web designers. In fact, the website occasionally stopped working due to the heavy traffic.
The gift package from Speaking Herbs
Speaking Herbs currently develops everything in-house, including website development, except for graphic design and product manufacturing.
“We realized that we need to have a lot more control in our hands when it comes to technical development,” says Tanaya.
With more word-of-mouth, the brand claims to be back to pre-pandemic levels, growing 15 to 20 percent monthly.
While Tanaya did not disclose the earnings, she does tell Speaking Herbs sells 3,000-3,300 units each month, Price between Rs 399 and Rs 5,000. The average order value is around 1,500 rupees.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands have seen a huge boom as more people shop online.
Speaking Herbs competes with many established brands, including Kama Ayurveda, Nykaa’s own brand that sells essential oils, and Forest Essentials.
Forward, talk about herbs aims to reduce its SKUs to 100. to increase and expand into cities outside of Delhi and the Uttar Pradesh region.
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