The Moms Co, already a Rs 100 crore brand, aims to grow 2.5X in 2021

• While the lockdown led to many businesses hitting a roadblock, mother and baby healthcare firm The Moms Co. used social media platforms to not just stay connected with their audience but also to grow their business substantially in an otherwise difficult year.
• We speak to Malika Sadani, Founder & CEO, The Moms Co. who walks us through the brand's journey so far and what kept them going through 2020. She also tells us her vision for the brand.

The pandemic led to most businesses getting impacted adversely. However, for many small businesses that started online, the pandemic became a huge opportunity.

With people spending more time on social media while being stuck at home, the online world not just became a way of entertaining themselves but also the most convenient way of shopping without venturing out.

Many small and medium sized businesses saw massive growth, a lot of it coming from social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. One such business was The Moms Co.

Established in 2017, the brand’s goal was to address the gap of toxin-free products in the Indian market for prenatalpre-natal and post-natal consumption, and baby care. Owing to the fact that more and more people are becoming conscious about the products they put on their babies, the brand had been witnessing good growth even before the pandemic. However, the lockdown, while leading to the initial hiccup of supply chain management, eventually led to impressive growth for the brand.

During Facebook’s Fuel for Growth event held late last year, the company boasted of seeing triple traffic on its website and a 200% business growth over pre-Covid levels.

We recently spoke to Malika Sadani, Founder & CEO, The Moms Co. to understand how they managed to grow their business in a difficult year like 2020 and what 2021 looks like for them.

Edited excerpts:

Q) It's been over 3 years since the launch of the brand. Let's divide the conversation pre and post-pandemic. How were things going before the pandemic hit, what kind of growth were you witnessing?

Even before the pandemic, a lot of moms were looking for safer, natural and effective options for themselves and their families which put us on track to achieve 3X growth year-on-year. In a short span of 3 years, we have been able to reach over a million moms across the country. When the lockdown was announced, we did find it difficult because we had to shut our operations and there was a lot of uncertainty. However, since most of our products are classified as essentials and because we had a presence online even before the pandemic, we were better placed to service the needs of moms during the pandemic. The struggle we faced was less on the demand side and more on the supply side.

Q) Considering things had come to a complete stop at the start of the pandemic, how did you get back? What kind of growth have you been witnessing since?

Our products primarily cater to mom and baby care and were classified as essentials during the lockdown and this helped us. However, by the end of lockdown 1, we were facing problems with supply and logistics. We were running low on essential ingredients and raw materials, some of which are imported and some which are sourced locally. Once the government had announced red, green and yellow zones we faced challenges in terms of getting our products delivered to people. For the comfort of our consumers, we made changes to our website tech and enabled them to check their pin code zone before placing an order. This helped give them clarity.

Q) You recently came up with your first campaign. Was your marketing completely word-of-mouth before that?

Yes, the Natural Age Control range is the first campaign which we have done with a celebrity. Before we launched the campaigns, we relied on word-of-mouth and influencer marketing on Instagram. We work with influencers who resonate with our brand and create content with them to reach out to their audience. We had also spent three years driving product trials across digital platforms.

Q) What part of your growth do you attribute to social media platforms?

A large part of where we are right now is thanks to Facebook and Instagram. When we started out, Facebook and Instagram helped us generate awareness and create a community of moms who form the core of our audience. We connect deeply with moms, there are many initiatives we have undertaken on our social media handles in the form of product stories and AMAs on Instagram where we ask moms for feedback on our products. A lot of our products have come about as a result of the suggestions moms have given us over the years.

Q) As a new business/startup, what are a few learnings from the 2020 experience?

The business landscape is constantly evolving. While you can work to stabilize internal factors, there will always be external factors at work which can impact the business. As such, it’s important for business leaders to be agile and move quickly to chart a new course of action. This year has taught us that one should embrace change instead of fighting it. Due to the

Q) What do you wish you had done before the pandemic hit that you think would have helped you deal with the situation better?

While we hadn’t expected there to be a complete lockdown, we had anticipated the scenario. We prepared ourselves for the lockdown by scheduling work for home for team two weeks before the lockdown was announced as a test run. This helped us ease into the lockdown when it was officially announced in March 2020. The relationship between us and the key vendors also helped us get things off the ground quickly. I think the key difference also lies between focus v/s breadth. The fact that we were essential goods and had always focused on creating a presence on both offline and online channels helped us get moving quickly.

Q) Going ahead, what will be your key areas of focus to grow the business further?

The Moms Co. was created to help moms make safe, natural and effective choices for themselves and their families. We will continue to make life easier for moms by focussing on creating natural, toxin-free products that help solve their face, skin and hair concerns.

Q) What is your target for the brand in 2021, in terms of sales and growth?

Despite the pandemic, we have been very fortunate to support moms’ choices with our natural, toxin-free products. We became a Rs 100 crore brand in October 2020. In 2021, our aim is to grow our business 2-2.5X.