Ayurveda originated in ancient India more than 5,000 years ago and is an intricate system of health and well-being. It believes that well-being can be achieved through mind-body balance and promotes natural ingredients and a balanced lifestyle. The word Ayu means life and Veda means knowledge. So literally the word Ayurveda means the knowledge of life.
The core of Ayurveda is customisation. Ayurveda believes that every person has a body constitution that is specific to him or her. Ayurveda gives a personalised solution to each individual based on prakruti, doshavastha (condition the doshas), and dhatus (tissues in the body). According to Ayurveda, prakruti is defined as body constitution or nature. It is formed by tridoshas (vata, pitta, and kapha) and is genetically determined by various factors.
By leveraging technology to capture information related to individual prakruti, new-age brands can offer the same level of customisation that was so far offered by an ayurvedic expert in an offline environment. Brands like ours have tied up with Ayurvedic experts to create a detailed questionnaire that allows them to identify individual prakruti and match it with the right product. This allows customised beauty brands to reach millions of customers all over the country without establishing a costly and time-consuming offline presence. Ayurveda as a thesis for designing beauty products has got a high level of acceptance in India and even globally. But generic Ayurveda inspired products can’t deliver efficacy. It is the customised approach of Ayurveda that distinguishes it from the rest of cosmetic beauty brands on a shelf both digital and virtual.
The journey of customising beauty regimes would begin with customers taking questions that give brands insight into their actual skin and hair problems. Sometimes the doshas fall out with each other due to the quality of water, location, the air we breathe in addition to our lifestyle. If we have to leverage tech, the data inputs have to be precise and hence the questions have to be extremely well-framed so that with each answer, the Ayurveda expert gets to know you better.
This has to be followed up by a rigorous feedback cycle. Unlike offline environments where the feedback cycle is often very long and in many cases broken, online brands can collect feedback faster and use them not only in further improving the product efficacy but also quickly identifying emerging problem areas and creating new Ayurvedic products. Many D2C brands are taking this approach as it gives them the flexibility of making changes in their products, and learning directly from the customer without increasing operational expense. Once you have understood your market and customers well, D2C brands can also explore the marketplace route as by then you would have reached a certain maturity in your business cycle, stabilised cost of running operations, and clocking revenues along with being a well-known brand name.
We believe, customisation doesn’t stop at hair or skincare, overall wellness of the body and a healthy mind form the basis of Ayurveda inspired customised beauty regime. There is a legit opportunity in customised wellness regimens which should consist of a personalised range of detox and gut health supplements to suit individual prakruti. We believe the future of wellness will be anchored around customisation as not everyone needs the same combination of herbs and in the same dosage.
The global beauty and personal care market is worth close to $500 billion and is expected to grow at a 5% CAGR by 2025. At $80 billion, the herbal beauty industry is about 17% of the overall industry. However, the share of herbal products should increase driven by demand for such products as customers embrace a more sustainable lifestyle. Increasingly consumers are demanding products that are made to suit their skin/hair/body type. Ayurvedic formulations, with their focus on herbal ingredients and a view toward customisation, are well-positioned to leverage this trend.
Therefore, while Ayurveda might be 5,000 years old, it is more than ever relevant in today’s age because of its potential to create customised beauty and wellness solutions that leverage herbal and natural ingredients.
The writer is Business Head, Vedix.