How St.Botanica is Sailing the Sea

St.Botanica, a personal care brand, was founded in 2015 with the aim of delivering quality-driven, premium, and innovative products that are unique yet natural in their formulations, and deliver the results as promised.

In 2021, the company was acquired by The Good Glamm Group. It is a skincare and haircare brand, differentiated by the attribute of providing luxury and premium products to customers in an affordable and cost-effective price range. In particular, the brand emphasizes on its philosophy of bringing the world’s finest ingredients to the customers through its offerings.

Products from St.Botanica are crafted using carefully researched and identified personal care and wellness ingredients from across the globe, for the discerning consumer who wants to experience the best that the world has to offer. With its mission to keep evolving and expanding the brand by creating new and effective products at every step along the way, St.Botanica is spread across the globe with its products creating a positive impact on the lives of people in the USA, Australia, Singapore, India, and the UK.

Options Galore

St.Botanica offers a wide range of Skincare, Haircare, Wellness, and Bath & Body essentials targeting individuals’ unique needs and concerns.

“Our brand emphasizes on quality and authenticity, as all our products are designed and manufactured with premium ethically sourced ingredients that are natural, safe, and skin-friendly. Our products are differentiated from our competitors within the category, as we carefully research and curate exotic ingredients from across the globe,” said Sukhleen Aneja, CEO, The Good Brands Co., The Good Glamm Group.

Today, well-known D2C brands in the personal care space are creating a new range of products by bringing traditional well-known Indian kitchen ingredients in packaged product formats. Unlike these brands, products from St.Botanica are crafted using carefully researched and identified personal care and wellness ingredients from across the globe.

The brand scientifically proves the efficacy and safety of its products, dermatologically testing the same for safety and scientifically establishing the performance of the key products. Being a member of PETA’s Beauty without Bunnies Program, the brand ensures the manufacturing process of its products is cruelty-free.

The New Goji Berry Skincare Range

“Our newest launch is a game-changer in glow-boosting skincare. The exotic Goji Berry is known for having 500X more Vitamin C than Oranges which gives the berry the power to effectively fade dark spots and brighten skin tone.  Made with skin-loving ingredients that are dermatologically tested and toxin-free, this range is your one-stop solution for unbeatable radiance,” asserted Aneja.

This range comprises a Face Wash, a Day Cream with SPF 15, a Clay Mask, a Face Serum, a Sunscreen Serum with SPF 50 PA+++, and a Body Wash. True to St.Botanica’s philosophy of developing premium, quality-driven, and innovative toxin-free products using a blend of curated exotic ingredients, the range is packed with antioxidants. Moreover, the range is vegan, cruelty-free, and toxin-free, with Goji Berry as its key ingredient.

According to the CEO, the new range is meant for everyone who likes to indulge in the goodness of natural exotic ingredients. The brand embraces the power of potent exotic ingredients through its toxin-free and vegan formulations. “The new Goji Berry Skincare Range with Vitamin C harnesses the power of Goji Berries, which is a superfood with 500 times more Vitamin C than oranges. The berries have been lauded over time for their excellent medicinal and beauty benefits, and fit well within St.Botanica’s philosophy of exotic ingredients,” added Sukhleen Aneja.

Technology and St.Botanica

Being a technology-savvy brand, St.Botanica has recently introduced a Virtual Skin Analyser on its St.Botanica App which is an artificial intelligence-oriented tool that gives recommendations based on an individual’s unique skincare needs and concerns.

Not only does it recommend skin routines that one should follow, but also keeps them updated on all new product developments, and content that they should consume along with improvements that can be observed based on the regime. The journey is customized for each user and helps the brand tailor-make the shopping experience.

Furthermore, the brand aims to bring forth more technological innovations, “At St.Botanica, we are always looking to innovate and grow. From product awareness to post-purchase experience, our team is always working on bringing new and latest technologies to address our customers' unique skincare and haircare needs. We are also bringing new, innovative products with nature’s finest and unique ingredients,” stated Aneja.

The Growing Skincare Market

The Indian Beauty and Personal care market is estimated at over $20 billion today and is forecasted to grow exponentially over the next 5-7 years. The CEO expects growth to come from both increasing market penetration, and consumers spending more on premium offerings and new categories.

Talking about trends, Aneja added, “We see multiple long-term trends driving the growth of the skincare & beauty market today. As consumer buying power has gone up over time, we have seen an increase in experimentation when it comes to beauty and skincare. Today, consumers are far more willing to try new ingredients & formats that offer proven efficacy to meet their needs.”

As an example, the brand has witnessed the face serum market thrive in the last few years, as consumers have come to realize the benefits of concentrated products. In parallel, a shift in consumer preferences towards more sustainable, ethical forms of beauty can also be witnessed. Also, consumer choice today hinges far more on ingredient efficacy, which is a departure from the brand-first choice that consumers were usually making earlier.

Therefore, St.Botanica's positioning is unique as it offers some of the world's finest ingredients across products. The brand is committed to researching and bringing in unique and effective ingredients from around the world to our consumers. This further is reflected in the brand’s best-selling Moroccan Argan hair and skin care lines, as well as its newly launched Goji Berry range.

Growth and Marketing

St Botanica’s growth has steadily increased over the years. Since being acquired by the Good Glamm Group, the brand has grown by 200 percent.

Since driving large-scale availability of products is essential for D2C brands, like all brands that are a part of The Good Glamm Group, St.Botanica is present online as well as offline. “We are present in 500+ traditional trade beauty stores across the country, and have recently expanded into large format offline retail chains such as Shoppers Stop,” stated Aneja.

The Good Glamm Group’s content-to-commerce strategy encompasses all brands under our umbrella, leveraging the in-house creator network of The Good Creator Co. to deliver large-scale influencer campaigns, build its social media presence and drive traffic and orders through its D2C channels. In addition, the group’s media channels, which fall under The Good Media Co. i.e, POPxo, MissMalini, ScoopWhoop, and Tweak India, are a consistent part of our campaign planning.

Besides, St.Botanica runs one of the most successful and engaging referral programs, where users are given tasks on the basis of which they are awarded points and products. The tasks related to their daily life, from following a skincare regime, or a hair care regime based on the climate of their town, or referring a friend.

Social media content creation for the brand or experience with the brand’s products and content engagement also lets users access the referral program. “We drive 25 percent of our new customer acquisition from the Referral program and this also helps retain our engaged customers and increase Brand LTV,” said the CEO.

St.Botanica has traditionally been an e-commerce-first business, deriving its early growth from large e-commerce platforms. However, the brand has been able to complement its business with a natural extension into D2C, significantly driving up the scale of the business.

Future Plans

In the next 3 to 5 years, the brand aims to be a global clean beauty personal care powerhouse, bringing to consumers across the world the very best hair care, skin care, and wellness products.

The brand aims to achieve this through key focus areas such as being first-to-market with new and upcoming global ingredients. “We will also continue to expand awareness and desire for the brand through our content-to-commerce funnel. We aim to reach 3X our current availability in offline retail by the end of this year. This includes expansion in traditional trade beauty, modern trade beauty as well as large format grocery (Modern Trade, self-service) stores. Furthermore, we also plan to enter global markets starting with the Middle East in the near future,” concluded Sukhleen Aneja.