How Pilgrim is Using Social Media to Educate its Consumers About its Unique Products
How Pilgrim is Using Social Media to Educate its Consumers About its Unique Products

Pilgrim was launched in 2020 with an aim to provide consumers with some unique solutions for skin care. When the brand started its operations, there were three trends prevalent in the industry – first trend was #wanderlust which depicts an aspiration to travel among the younger consumer, beauty regimens are no longer restricted to basic CTM and consumers now prefer to layer various products on their skin and last was consumers opting for conscious life.

Having looked at these three trends, Pilgrim is built consumers backward. So whatever the consumers want, that's what the brand is offering. 

“We realized that when people are traveling to different parts of the world to experience the culture and, the lifestyle of different countries, they were also talking about beauty products from different parts of the world and bringing it back to use in India. Every part of the world has something unique to offer. So we said, can we offer this in India itself at the doorsteps of our consumers? Our first range was called Secrets of Jeju Island Korea, second - Secrets of Vinotherapy, Bordeaux France, and third is based on Spanish beauty with a key ingredient called Squalene, which is derived from Spanish olives,” explained Anurag Kedia, Co-founder, Pilgrim.

“All our ranges offer a variety of products and apart from this, we also follow a Pilgrim code where we capture the conscious lifestyle element. And this is how we blend all the three trends and introduced the brand Pilgrim,” he further added.

At present, the brand has a presence in three categories – skin care, hair care, and bath and body. 

“Going ahead, there are some hybrid products like skincare and makeup crossovers which we will be doing at one point in time, but we do not have any plans to offer pure makeup. Along with this, within skin care, hair care, and bath and body, we will offer more products and new subcategories over a period of time,” he stated.

The TG of the brand is between 20-30 years old. 65-70 percent of the consumers of the brand come from non-metro cities, whereas the rest of the consumers come from the top 10 metro cities.

“We have managed to reach out to a large set of consumers across tier I, tier II and tier III towns where the aspiration is there, but access to some of these products in the past was not there. But now with D2C and technology, we are able to reach them in a seamless manner,” he asserted.

How Pilgrim is Using Social Media to Educate its Consumers About its Unique Products

Betting Big on D2C

The brand is betting big on D2C as D2C offers multiple benefits over the traditional offline business.

Highlighting the benefits of the D2C model of retail, Kedia said, “D2C gives you the freedom to reach pan India while sitting at one place. It also helps to get feedback quickly from the consumers.

“It is not like that we will not go omnichannel. At some point in the journey, we would like to go omnichannel but D2C allows so much closer consumer connection and that is the primary reason behind opting for D2C,” he asserted.

As soon as the brand goes omnichannel, it plans to open its exclusive stores along with expanding its presence in the general and modern trade.

Marketing Strategies

The brand is known for providing innovative products and ingredients which are not very commonly known, so it believes in educating its consumers through its social media channels, website, etc where it talks about different products, benefits, ingredients, and a lot more.

“We not only offer information and education about what we are doing but also about skincare in general. We also work very closely with the set of influencers who have the right kind of reach and expertise,” he explained.

Future Plans

Last year, the brand raised Rs 13 crore in Series A funding. The round was led by Fireside Ventures, Rukam Capital, and founding teams of Boat, NoBroker, and the founder- CEO of Bewakoof.com, with Dexter capital as the transaction advisor.

“We are still contemplating about raising the funds going ahead because the last round of funds is still available with us. Since inception, we have always focussed on profitability and unit economics, so we don't have any immediate need for funds, but there has been some interest from inbound investors. So, we are still evaluating when is the right time to go ahead,” he explained.

Soon, the brand is expecting to reach the breakeven point and turn EBITDA positive. 

“In the last 12 months, we have grown close to 4x which means 10-15 percent growth month-on-month and that's the kind of growth we are aspiring for in the next 12 months. We are looking at an ARR of Rs 80 crore and this should grow 3-4 times in the coming year,” he asserted. 

“Along with this, next calendar year, we plan to enter the international markets, whereas this calendar year our focus will be completely on the domestic market,” he further added.

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