Online beauty products start-up MSM Box eyes over 200% growth month-on-month The start-up also plans to add lifestyle and self-curated boxes on its platform in coming months.
By Samiksha Jain •
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Beauty industry in India is a whopping $4.8 billion market and the same is expanding at a rapid pace, with changing lifestyle and increasing disposable income. Today, we see more and more start-ups emerging in the online space to serve ever growing consumers' demands. These online marketplaces for beauty and wellness professionals are changing the way customers find and book beauty and wellness services. Start-ups like MSM Box, Vyomo, MangeMySpa, Nykaa.com, VanityCube, Purplle and many more are fuelling demand and expansion in a big way. Moreover, these start-ups are receiving huge backing from investors also.
Fund Raising
One such example is Delhi-based World One Retail Private Limited, which runs online discovery and e-commerce platform MSM Box. Recently, the firm announced to secure an undisclosed amount of funding from angel investor Rohit Goel. MSM Box works on an online subscription-based model offering consumers the opportunity to buy, try and enjoy beauty brands via subscription boxes and individual beauty and grooming products from across the world.
The company plans to use this fund for developing technology, market expansion and ramping up operations. Further, they also plan to launch their iOS and Android app in the coming 3-4 months. Rohit Goel, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus and serial entrepreneur, believes that a good idea and burning passion is a starting point for any start-up, but a strong team with complementary skills, backed by a good strategy, is of utmost importance for its success. He feels team MSM has all this and more.
Inception
Founded by Bindu Sharma, Hans Vivek and Kavita Joshi Rai, MSM Box began its journey in 2012 as MyStyleMile.com, a beauty and fashion blog, with an aim to provide quality content to its readers, and keep them updated with the latest trends in this space, both in India and abroad. However, the team soon realised that more needs to be done than just the content. As a result, MSMbox.com was finally launched in 2014.
"Being a self-confessed beauty junkie, I soon realised how difficult and inefficient it was to search through innumerable beauty brands in the market and to figure out which one to buy. This is how the idea of a curated beauty box service was born and in October 2014 we finally launched MSMbox.com," says Bindu Sharma, Co-founder and Managing Director, MSM Box.com.
How it Works?
With 1 lakh registered subscribers' user base, MSM Box works on both subscription and e-commerce business models. The company offers 3 months, 6 months and annual subscription plan to its subscribers, which provides a range of skin care, hair care and makeup products samples. They offer two boxes, one for masstige and one for prestige brands.
The venture deals with popular brands like Benefit Cosmetics, Vichy, Avene, Kama Ayurveda, Clarins, Clinique, MAC, Estee Lauder, Color Baretc from premium to luxury segment, and Biotique, Body Shop, Maybelline, Lakme in the masstige segment. "The benefit of being an MSM Box subscriber is to discover and try brands and products with reduced financial outlay. Subscribers benefit from our expert curating skills and from our input, tips and guidance on how to get the best out of the products on offer," shares Sharma.
User can choose to subscribe or order from 3 boxes – MSM Express Box of worth Rs 416, MSM Select Box of worth Rs 832 (along with this you even get a surprise goodie box containing beauty, grooming and lifestyle products from new and established beauty brands every month), and MSM Bulldawg (men's box) of worth Rs 1,495. They offer free shipping and cash on delivery option to consumers. "Every month we have themes around which we curate products for the box. We also create relevant content that help our customers decide which product to buy," explains Sharma.
Growth and Expansion Plans
Eyeing to grow more than 200 per cent month-on-month, MSM Box also plans to add lifestyle and self-curated boxes in coming months. "This is a largely untapped segment and we plan to focus our efforts towards reaching a wider customer base and to scale up operations. Another key area for us is to further enhance our existing digital content," Sharma adds further.
Apart from MSM, several other start-ups have announced to raise fund. Platforms like VanityCube, recently raised seed funding from a group of angel investors. Similarly, Vyomo raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from cricketer Yuvraj Singh's venture fund YouWeCan. Other start-ups in beauty space, like Purplle secured over $5 million in its Series A round of funding from IvyCap Ventures in January this year, while Nykka reportedly secured around Rs 20 crore from private investors, including HNIs and NRIs.
