In an interview with TechGraph, Anvi Shah, CEO of Hyugalife said, “Health & wellness has always been a competitive and complicated platform where a lot of knowledge is required to keep it going. It is a long-term process.”
Read the complete interview:
TechGraph: Can you help me understand how far Hyugalife has come since its existence? When did it start and where is it now?
Anvi Shah: Hyugalife is building India’s largest health and wellness vertical e-retailer platform, enabling consumers to buy authentically sourced health products, backed by content to drive education and awareness in this space.
Initially started by 3 ambitious people with the vision of creating a healthier and happier India, within 7 months their team is now extended to over 50 minds enthusiastically working towards the mission of bridging the gap between health & wellness brand providers and information seekers.
The platform has now tied up with over 100 brands across Health & Wellness categories like Sports Nutrition, Health Supplements, Herbal Supplements, Women’s Wellness, Kid’s Nutrition, Weight Management, and is adding more.
TechGraph: How is Hyugalife utilizing its sectoral expertise and technology to solve the pain points in the health & wellness sector?
Anvi Shah: Health and Wellness have always been a prominent yet knowledge-driven sector, backed by out-of-the-world technological inventions. A lot of the focus gained by this category is directed towards its curative side containing the hospitality sector.
While this sector is always buzzing with innovations and technological advancements, the preventive sector is usually the one that lags. This is majorly due to low awareness and knowledge associated with products in this sector.HyugaLife will ensure consumers get a chance to shuffle through numerous product options and make a well-researched and calculated choice.
These brands do not just offer products, they also deliver insightful information about the products and their co-relation with overall well-being, and HyugaLife will therefore help these consumers to reach their desired health goals. With all this, our mission is to build a community that’s more aware, informed, and receptive to Health & Wellness.
TechGraph: What is the state of healthcare & wellness in India?
Anvi Shah: There was a lack of information and knowledge in India about health and wellness supplements majorly because we’ve always been a populous and developing nation so health and wellness wasn’t ever a primary topic to learn and talk about.
But now we are observing a novel trend where FMCG giants are also getting into launching brands after noticing the growing demand whereas the government is collectively working and promoting the nutraceutical sector. Health in 2021 was a 5.5-billion-dollar market expected to go to 18 billion by 2025.
There is no doubt that the health and wellness sector is growing at a great pace and thereby HyugaLife has a huge potential to build up a category and be the frontrunner in building an informed consumer. HyugaLife, as a platform, stands for offering the widest range of authentic health products backed by relevant content surrounding it.
TechGraph: How is technology transforming the health & wellness sector? Do you think the trend had taken hold even before the pandemic-induced disruptions?
Anvi Shah: Yes! Surely the technological trend has accelerated access to health and wellness in India. A trend is observed where the reactive side of health and wellness is being built like in the cases of biotech.
However, the shift can also be observed towards the proactive side like in the case of wearables and trackers that are providing data on everyday health parameters to their consumers.
HyugaLife is trying to fill this gap and take these metrics further by giving the consumer both products and relevant information to improve user experiences with these trackable parameters.
TechGraph: Which are the key products & services driving the growth of Hyugalife?
Anvi Shah: HyugaLife is a health and wellness platform, that aims to provide consumers with products ranging across various segments of the health and wellness domain. The platform primarily aims to go beyond a basic e-commerce platform, by being more like a partner for these plans and harnessing the collective power of both brands and the platform to lay the foundation of this category in India; growing together to create a win-win situation for both consumers and brands.
Presently it covers brands related to Ayurvedic Supplements, Weight loss, Hair, Skin, and Nails, Health Foods & Beverages, Health Supplements, Sports Nutrition, Women’s Health, and Kid’s Nutrition. HyugaLife will become a go-to platform for brands to present themselves and their brand stories in front of their prospective consumers, thereby amplifying their reach and growth rates.
TechGraph: What is the roadmap for Hyugalife going forward
Anvi Shah: We are moving forward using three key pillars
i) Short Form snackable content on Health. ii) Assisted purchase to guide and support the consumer through the H&W journey. iii) Lastly, building an expert panel of key opinion leaders in the space and enabling digital interaction between consumers so that they have a go-to option for all the queries and doubts they get.
At Hyugalife, we have onboarded over 150 brands across Sports Nutrition, Health Supplements, Herbal Supplements, Women’s Wellness, Kid’s Nutrition, and Weight Management.
Along with retailing a multitude of authentically sourced products, we are using apt content as a key pillar to drive education and awareness in this space. We will hit 500 brands by December 2022. Our mission is to bridge the nutritional gap and build an informed and conscious consumer base so that we escalate towards our vision of offering a happier and healthier life to Indians.