How Kult App is Re-innovating Online Beauty Shopping

Founded in 2022, Kult App is designed to meet the growing demand for innovation and technological advancement, revamping the way consumer shop online using intuitive and interactive technology driven by insights from leading dermatologists.

Integrating several global brands around the world into a single convenient platform, Kult App offers the best of luxury beauty, specializing in skincare, makeup, fragrance, and hair. The brand features a wide selection of curated and branded products from Colorbar, MAC, Ilana, Klairs, PeriPera, and much more.

“Since the launch, we have noticed changes in trends and adapted ourselves in the most consumer-friendly way possible. For us, consumer demands are our fundamental priority, we have been evolving over the months and strategizing our innovations accordingly to continuously changing market needs,” stated Karishma Khokhar, Founder and CEO, Kult App.

Ideation

Being passionate about consumer experience, Kult App was born with the realization that there exists a tremendous opportunity to create a seamless experience that merged all touch points of a purchase cycle in an organic fashion. 
Moreover, the founder believed that e-commerce needs to be beyond the two-dimensional experience of a transactional website, as there is hardly any experience attached to the current online shopping experience.

Thus, Kult App is all about changing that and re-creating excitement in the process, the positive feedback further validating the App and its approach. 

Options Galore

The Kult App currently offers a curation of premium products across international and home-grown brands in the categories of skincare, haircare, and makeup. Some of the brands on the platform include COSRX and One Thing in skincare, Kevin Murphy and Maui Moisture in haircare, and MAC Cosmetics and Smashbox in makeup. 

“We are firm believers in quality over quantity. Our editorial teams run tests on each product to ensure premium quality products that cater to the specific needs of the Indian skin types. Every skincare product on our platform is reviewed by our lead dermatologist. Our curated offerings also include OTC pharma brands that are available on limited beauty e-commerce platforms,” asserted Khokhar.

In terms of foraying into other categories, Kult has on boarded over 200 brands so far, while forging new partnerships every month including exclusive international brands that will be introduced in India for the first time. 

“Our app will soon include more ways to shop within the interface to offer more browsing options for our users, strengthening the journey from discovery to delivery,” she added. 

Brand USP

Kult states its USP to be its commitment to user experience, as they are the focal stakeholders of the app and the brand. The brand firmly believes in hyper-personalization.  With consultations from top dermatologists in India and the US, Kult App utilizes a skin typing indicator. Using the Leslie bowman indicator, Kult App does not show an endless carousel of products but rather considers 4 different parameters to assess the skin- oil levels, sensitivity, pigmentation, and age of skin. 

Based on the same, it becomes a personal counselor with its algorithm that narrows down choices and allows users to make a decision for their specific skin needs. 

After the users take a one-time quiz, each product displayed in the search shows a personalized match score. This match score conveys how well it suits the user's skin needs. Additionally, the algorithm generates a personalized description for each product. 

Kult App which is currently available on App Store for iOS users will soon be available on Android platforms, “Our vision boards were always aimed at reaching our consumers far and wide. Kult App has created a strong consumer base of iOS users and expansion plans have already been put into action. We are very close to launching our Android App to cater to the target audience,” said Khokhar.

Technology and Kult App

For users, it can be impossible to determine which products will work, which are actually safe to use, and what a product will look like when applied to the skin. Kult App thus works at creating a personalized online experience for the customers to help them navigate and make the right decisions. It offers numerous technological advancements for the same such as:

• Calculating Skin code: its proprietary algorithm developed in tandem with some of the best dermatologists in India, helps users identify and compare the best skincare products for them. The calculated reasoning with each product also educates users on why a certain product is good for them and another is not. 
• Personalization: its app allows for the creation of up to approximately 270 million unique user profiles, each of which can include a personalized skin code and specific skin concerns. The app is fully personalized for each user, offering tailored product recommendations, product listings, and content, as well as personalized tips for skin care.
• Visual listing: With content and interface aesthetics being of utmost importance, for color cosmetics or makeup, it's almost formulaic in that it really boils down to imagery. Sharing with the customer how a product works and what results they may get is very powerful. 
• Curation: Expert makeup artists and dermatologists help Kult App curate the best products across categories from thousands of brands across the globe.

Being a tech-first m-commerce beauty app, its mission is to bring technological advancements in the beauty and fashion sector. “With our Android App launch on the way. We aim to create a compatible environment for the users where Kult App is the one-stop platform catering to all their needs. Thus, we are constantly working to improve the level of personalization offered in our app even for new categories such as hair care with expert-curated product recommendations which would be unique to every user,” asserted the founder. 

Retail and Marketing Strategy

Kult App is a tech-driven beauty and lifestyle company that is driven by the goal of inventing a newer, more intuitive, and customer-centric path to purchase. Led by women, for women based in India, Kult App is unlike any traditional eCommerce company in the beauty industry. 

“We are continuously introducing a curated selection of the best of globally loved popular, niche, and emerging beauty brands to our app in order to offer shoppers a greater degree of choice in their beauty journey. We further seek to remove the limitation of delivery time considerations to add greater convenience and simplify buying decisions by offering home delivery of products within just a few hours of making a purchase. We have currently achieved that in Mumbai, where we deliver within just 2 hours of purchase, and seek to replicate this same pan-India, where we currently fulfill delivery within 48 hours,” stated Khokhar.

Aligned with its motto of customer centricity, its D2C platform strategy is the essence of Kult App. It allows the brand to cut through the traditional beauty e-tailing approach, and make beauty accessible through simple, easy, and playful steps. 

Future Plans

Having recently launched its hair care category, Kult App aims to reach where its audience is, while expanding through the Android App launch and dark stores in Tier I cities to strengthen its hyper-delivery model.

“Our goal is to build a platform with a highly fascinating combination of categories that India hasn't experienced before. We will be one step closer to fulfilling our goal of becoming the finest beauty shopping app in the world,” concluded Karishma Khokhar.