How men's grooming touched ₹16,000 Cr? 🧔🏻

Jul 14, 2023

Welcome to the 165th edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 95,300+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more

Gillette entered India in 1993 🇮🇳
Men's grooming touched ₹16,000 Cr this year 💸
How did we get here as a country? 🔽

The origin story
India's 1991 new economic policy opened up the market for global companies. It was the gold rush for global companies to start investing into the new India. The finance minister was none other than Shri Manmohan Singh.Fast forward 30 years ⚡️

️What started as a "safe razor blade" product for men's facial hair grooming has evolved into a category on it's own. But, it wasn't fast as we might think.
Removing facial hair was frowned upon in most Indian traditions.

The story of men's grooming to ₹16,000 Cr 👇🏻

1/ "Safer Blades" was the go to market 🎯
Straight razors are used to cause face injuries if not used carefully. The new Gillette safety blazers solved just that with a fine facial hair removal experience. The blade reached millions of units sold in a few months.

2/ The influence of Bollywood movies 📱
Indian men were/are influenced by Bollywood movies. That includes copying clothes the actors wear, how they speak and even which career do they choose. Grooming influence comes from Bollywood.

The Hero Is Bearded In Bollywood - Sentinelassam

3/ Modern masculinity = groomed beard 🧔🏻
Being well-groomed & well-dressed is one of the basic expectations for a modern man. This has a deeper insight though - most men are discovered by the other gender through social media (especially in prime mating ages).

4/ Wallet share has it's own reasons 💳
Avg per capital income has almost doubled from 84K back in 2015 has almost doubled to 172k, creating discretionary spending even in Tier 2/3/4 towns. The wallet share has increased exponentially.

5/ Online first distribution 📲
What limited conventional brands to sell high ticket size grooming through it's retailers is now possible with D2C approach. Sure the customer acquisition cost is through the roof & I won't deny that red-flag there.

6/ Average ticket size is healthy 💸
With consumables as the key focus for most of these men's grooming brands (Beardo, The Man Company, Bombay Shaving Company), the repeat purchase cycle is coping up.What's next for men's grooming category?

The classic insight is of per capita income growing & bringing even more men into making their first luxury grooming purchase. The second - horizontal expansion with sexual wellness as a category (Zlade, Menhood & more).

What am I most excited about?

The depth of this category is incredible.
Working-age population(Age 20-59) share in India’s total population will peak by 2030. This equals a growth of nearly 97 million people in the workforce who are actively making close to the average per capita income. Huge grooming market.
Internet + UPI penetration is going up.
India has around 35 crore transacting users across various digital platforms, including e-commerce, shopping, travel and hospitality, and the number is set to hit 70 crore by 2030. (Source : Redseer)
Per capita income is going up.
India is on track to becoming a $7 trillion economy by 2030. Assuming we peak our population at 1.6 billion people avg per capita has to grow to ~$4,350, increasing discretionary spends. The category has to 2X by 2030s if not outgrow that. Exciting times to be part of India’s D2C growth story.

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