Gwalior-based Ayurvedic brand Amrutam is the brainchild of Sh. Ashok and Smt. Chandrakanta Gupta. In 2016, when the business faced massive financial loss, their kids – Agnim Gupta and Stuti Ashok Gupta - joined the business to reinvent and rebrand the brand and its products.
In 2017, Amrutam moved from supplying herbal medicines to medical stores, prescribed by doctors, to sell premium personal as well as healthcare OTC products online, through its website, directly to the consumers.
“From posting 1 post a day on social handles, to receiving our first-ever order in August 2017, Amrutam grew organically like a tree from receiving 10 orders in a month to exponentially now. And today, Amrutam is not just a family of 4 but more than 1,00,000+ members from the people working with us, our vendors to community members who love our products,” say Agnim Gupta and Stuti Ashok Gupta.
Betting Big on D2C Strategy
Amrutam’s goal has always been to bring together a community of individuals who are as passionate about Ayurveda and natural living as the brand.
“A big reason to take the D2C route was to avoid the hassle that one has to deal with in the offline market, from giving huge commissions to retailers, waiting for cheque clearance, product returns to compromising on product quality and losing out on a lot of energy,” they state.
“We aim to be able to directly connect to our consumers with the capital we have and as we want to stay bootstrapped, the brick-and-mortar channel is not something we are excited about, for a few years as it is quite a capital intensive model to go with,” they further add.
Marketing Strategy
At present, the brand sells only from its own website and not present in offline stores as well as online marketplaces.
“In terms of marketing, Amrutam has always believed in expanding beyond its identity as an Ayurvedic lifestyle brand. In 2020, we launched our first Amrutam Sadasya Program – a membership-based program that brought people from all across the world together into a closely-knit group. We also organized the ‘Health is Beauty Contest’ to encourage and support the up-and-coming creators and artists and bring forth visual art on the theme of health and beauty,” they share.”
“Commensurate with its motto to serve society, Amrutam has donated large amounts of Ayurvedic formulations and powders to those in need. Realizing the need to inculcate sustainable practices in our processes, we also started the #AmrutamRecycle Project, through which we have re-used over 5,000 PET bottles in 2020 alone. To ensure that our community members can incorporate Ayurveda easily into their lives, we broke our backs and came up with a wholesome Ayurveda Lifestyle Kit with a curated book called Ayurveda Lifestyle: The Beginning. Along the same lines, we launched Amrutam.Global – a platform that bridged the gap between alternative health practitioners and those seeking holistic living,” they further add.
As part of the social responsibility program, Amrutam has been donating 1 percent of its sales receipts to Balaji Institute of Surgery, Research and Rehabilitation for the Disabled (BIRRD) – a Tirupati-based trust.
Social Media: Expanding Brand’s Reach
The brand is providing well-researched, relevant, and informative content on social media which helps it a lot in engaging with the community members.
“We are also using social media to resolve customer queries/ doubts - related to the website, product, shipping, or even health concerns. Along with this, we are collaborating and interacting with different influencers, Ayurveda lovers for live sessions, cross-posting and mentioning each other’s handle to engage with each other’s audiences,” they assert.
Future Plans
Currently, the brand has 100+ products listed on its website in different categories - hair, skin, and health and has 1,000+ recipes approved by the Ministry of AYUSH.
“We are developing our herbal garden to get the best quality materials for our products and save on cost as well. Along with this, we are hiring and adding more members to the Amrutam family in different departments. We are also understanding and learning about different mediums of communication and visibility to be future-ready in all aspects,” they conclude.
This article was first published on Indian Retailer.
