Zorb., A brand making its name in the Feminine Hygiene space; a brainchild of Harsh Singhal. Feminine Hygiene is one of the fastest-growing categories in the Indian market; and has a double-digit growth rate, and still there is a lot of scope for innovation in this category which can be done. Harsh, founder of Zorb evaluates this category and sees huge business prospects in this category.
Feminine hygiene space and menstrual hygiene have always interested me as I thought that there could be a lot of work done over here due to a lack of awareness and lack of options. So, when I came across the product period panty, I thought it was quite an innovation. It is a product adopted by a lot of countries, but adoption in India was low and the category is still evolving. Hence, we thought of venturing into the category with our brand, Zorb.
The core problem we are trying to solve is providing sustainable solutions for menstrual hygiene. Both are sustainable and comfortable alternatives to sanitary pads for all women. Our offerings under Zorb., are reusable and comfortable period panties and menstrual cups. Customers can expect sustainable alternatives to sanitary pads and other products in the market. And, secondly, they can expect a good comfortable experience and also very convenient to use.
Since one of the challenges was to convert sanitary pad consumers into a period panty kind of product; so we never wanted pricing to become a barrier for conversion. Therefore, we have taken extra care while freezing the product pricing for Zorb. We have experimented with different prices, calculated margins, what kind of returns can be expected, and what is the sales, and after experimentation, we were able to figure out a price that would work for us. You have to experiment with the pricing, collect all the data, and see what is best for you, your brand, and the product.
With all these efforts with Zorb, we were able to generate revenue of Rs. 70.0 lacs in the first financial year and this year we are expecting to grow at least 4X of that number. We have been steady with our growth and striving to maintain this momentum.
We are currently using mainly Social Media Marketing, influential marketing, and performance marketing apart from that we also do whatsApp marketing and we try to organically get customers on board through our listings on Amazon by optimizing the listings platform and trying to get placed on top organically.
Competition is prevalent in all categories; there is no business without competition. We are in a competitive category but for us, the competition is no other period panty products or other brands. We are looking at the bigger chunk of the market, it’s sanitary pads which are used by over 90% of women in India. That is the space we are looking at for Zorb and we consider to be our competition.
For us our focus has been quality products and maintaining operational efficiency being bootstrapped we need to be operating at high efficiency because we don’t have the capital to burn so we have been quite efficient in our capital allocation and operation. And keeping quality products is imperative if one has to survive in this era.
Knowing Harsh Singhal, founder of Zorb Care
The journey after college has been very interesting. I started my career at Dabur where I spent around 2.5 years, worked in e-commerce, and learned a lot during that time. I joined there pre-COVID and then worked for 2.5 years. After that I joined a startup by the name of Vahdam India in the D2C space; to enhance my learnings in the D2C over there and then eventually I started my brand ‘Zorb.’
I think there were a lot of challenges with set-up, leaving a job well paying and starting on our own ensuring product quality, reaching out to customers, and marketing a new product. All these were challenges we faced one by one, and we eventually overcame them while starting Zorb.
How to deal with failures on this Entrepreneurial Journey?
We see success and failure daily so that’s a part of the journey. Yes, there is a lot of failure and all but for someone starting now, my biggest advice would be to just go for it, don’t spend time thinking and overthinking things. Just start putting your time and energy towards what you want to build, and you always be happy to seek out guidance from whomever you want to seek out. There are a lot of platforms like LinkedIn, social media, and email. Don’t be afraid of seeking guidance and just get started; these are my two biggest advices.
Advice to Aspiring Entrepreneurs
As advice I would give to budding leaders and budding entrepreneurs would be one is don’t be afraid of failure and don’t be afraid of taking risks. Zorb. founder thinks this is the best time in India the country is evolving and growing rapidly so don’t be afraid to do so.
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