Demand for razors, epilators, trimmers and hair colour soars on ecomm platforms during the lockdown

Even at locations open to deliveries, e-commerce players are facing manpower crunch due to travel restrictions on delivery partners.

Companies need to come up with strategies to keep the lights on, both by keeping control on the cash burn as well as generating revenue in these difficult times.

Before Viom Networks, Syed, who studied at Wharton, US, had worked with Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel and Coca-Cola.

The business is split in three verticals, services, products and skilling. The services which include slimming and diet planning is the oldest and most known.

Salon chains and wellness providers look to spur sales and attract new clients.

Aware of the changes in customer preferences, hotels, resorts and online platforms are working to cater to the demand for healthier diets and rejuvenation treatments.

To help new mothers ease back into work, they can also avail of reduced work hours for two continuous weeks immediately after resuming work.

Beauty & wellness co expected to spend Rs 100 crore on acquisition, integration and category development of on-demand beauty services startup.

World’s oldest barber shop Truefitt and Hill is keen to take its India tally to 17 by the end of this year.

With 600 Naturals outlets, Groom India today owns the country’s largest beauty and wellness chain.

Enrich founder & director Vikram Bhatt said for the year ending March 31, 2018, the salon chain clocked Rs161crore in revenues and Rs 16.5 crore of positive ebitda.

Zurich-based Committee International d'Esthtique et de Cosmtologie (CIDESCO) is considered world standard for Beauty and Spa Therapy.

Even though 60% of the world’s population has either curly or wavy hair, Indians have always considered straight hair the ideal type.

"The consumer goods industry... is in turmoil," new Beiersdorf CEO Stefan De Loecker, who took over on Jan. 1, told a presentation to analysts. "I need to act now."

These products are manufactured in Europe. So this is an imported range which we are bringing in India. But once we build up the volume, then we may further decide on manufacturing it locally.

Nykaa currently offers a limited selection of products under men’s grooming on its main portal with the category being one of the fastest growing ones for the firm.

It was a trend investment banker Falguni Nayar was betting on when set up Nykaa to sell everything in the cosmetic and wellness category. Today she has around 750 professionals across different divisions.

This is the fourth round of fund-raising by Nykaa, which last raised about Rs 100 crore in 2016 from Max India, the Sunil Munjal family office and Harsh Mariwala.

Khosla’s mandate will be overseeing the firm’s wellness centres, personal care products and its institute of beauty and nutrition, across Middle East, Africa and CIS countries.

"The journey actually began in June when we did well due to marketing, though we were actually not ready operationally."

There is no market for me today because every brand in the category has convinced the consumer that they need to look fair to be successful in life.

Reliance Trends is the fashion and accessories arm of Reliance Retail.

Even though that is the small fraction of the $33 -billion revenue the market generate globally, it also means there is tremendous scope for growth for India.

“India would need more than 70 lakh skilled manpower in coming months in this sector due to unleashing of economy,” Mahendra Nath Pandey said.

The company, which plans to open 15 stores across India over the next five years, at present has one store in India. It entered India in June this year.

A shopping mall in LA called 'The Grove and Beverly Center' has added more hand sanitizing stations, while Glossier, a cosmetic store, is closing all stores: "We are ready to put public health before our results.".

The funding includes the sale of shares by some existing investors and employees of Nykaa, which has been done at a discount to the $1.2-billion valuation. The latest round comes about a year after the company raised $15 million from TPG Growth, which had valued it at $724 million.

The capital infusion comes at a time when risk capital investment activity has almost ground to a halt because of the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, which, in turn, has forced vertical ecommerce companies such as Nykaa to conserve cash, given the steep plunge in discretionary spending by consumers.

The company, celebrating its 50th anniversary, has lined up a string of new products for the future.

“The export of all ventilators including any artificial respiratory apparatus or oxygen therapy apparatus or any other breathing appliance/devices... is prohibited with immediate effect,” the the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification.

“50% of those surveyed said they were not able to buy at all due to no availability while 26% said they had to buy an unknown brand as reputed brands were out of stock. 8% said they were able to buy reputed sanitizers at a general retail store and 15% said they were able to buy reputed brand sanitizers at a chemist,” LocalCircle survey said.

"The total sanitiser licenses issued in the state is 48 and production ramped up to 50,000 litres per day," Additional Chief Secretary, Information, Awanish Awasthi, told reporters.

Kylie and Kris Jenner have teamed up with cosmetics company Coty to mass produce the hand sanitisers.

Although warehouses are open and delivery staff moving freely, they are operating at suboptimal capacity. Since there is increased consumer demand, there is scarcity of medicines ordered online.

While most brick-and-mortar pharmacies continue to function amid the countrywide lockdown to contain the pandemic, many consumers have switched to buying medicines online for fear of getting infected by the novel coronavirus, industry insiders said.

The Mysuru-headquartered brand is using its fragrance stock to make ayurvedic hand sanitisers ever since its product portfolio comprising incense sticks, prayer and wellness products came under the non-essential category.

The conversations between Reliance and Netmeds, which had also held talks with Walmart-owned Flipkart, had been going on before the coronavirus lockdown, sources said.

Researchers at Harvard University in the US created a highly sensitive soft capacitive sensor made of silicone and fabric that moves and flexes with the human body to unobtrusively and accurately detect movement.

The value of the market in India is Rs 4,579 crore at present.

Anytime Fitness further eyes expansion in Tier II and III market.

This partnership will leverage Talwalkars' infrastructure to promote Mehta's wellness offerings and intellectual property and also help expand the footprint of Mehta's brand.

To mark the occasion of Anti Obesity Day on November 26, the company would provide DNA scan to individuals at its centres countrywide and also educate them on issues leading to the problem such as weight gain, exercise and food habits etc.

Bansal said the startup has so far raised around $160 million and only less than 20% of the funds were utilised so far and the balance funds will be spent over the next few years towards developing fitness devices and technology platform, apart from expanding the footprint.

Selling sportswear online will open up an additional revenue stream for Curefit, which currently offers four products such as gyms under Cultfit, yoga and meditation centres under Mindfit, health food under Eatfit and primary care with Carefit.

Care revised its rating on long-term securities to ‘B’ from ‘A+’.

According to Banka, since its launch in the country, Trek has acquired more than 30,000 customers and till now had sold seven bicycles in the range of Rs 6.5 lakh to Rs 12 lakh.

As per the order, the gym is spread over nearly 103 locations across the country.

Starkenn Sports, which retails sport cycles under the Starkenn brand, plans to roll out its first made-in-India power cycles by August next year.

Hero Cycles plans to set up a fully owned assembly plant in Poland to cater exclusively to Europe, with special emphasis on the UK and Germany.