FirstCry.com Launches Goodlife, A Personal Care Products E-tailer
Pune-based start-up BrainBees Solutions Pvt Ltd, which runs the online baby products shop FirstCry.com, has launched a new e-commerce site called GoodLife.com. The new site offers a variety of personal care products (from both top Indian and international brands) ranging from skin care products like face wash, toners, etc to healthcare products (nutritional drinks) like protein shakes and weight gainers, among others.
"To begin with, GoodLife.com is a one stop destination for your personal care essentials. We offer products from top Indian and international brands and we provide products/brands at the lowest prices with free shipping and prompt customer service. Our benchmark is to provide our customers with a physical stores shopping experience; online," reads a message on the new site.
The site offers products in eight broad categories (further divided into sub-categories) including makeup, fragrances, skincare, bath & beauty, hair care, men's range, natural & organic and health and nutrition.
The brands available on the site as of now include Nina Ricci, Revlon, Maybelline, Pond's, Olay, L'oreal, Clean & Clear, Gillette, Park Avenue, Axe, H2O+, Pantene, Dove, Himalaya, Lotus Herbals, VLCC, Biotique, Davidoff, Tommy Hilfiger and Camay, among others.
Customers can also choose to 'Suggest a Product', which (we guess) would be made available on the website if there is enough demand for it. The site also has a 'Super Saver' segment that basically provides combo offers on products padded together in the form of discounts up to 45 percent (the company is currently offering discounts focused on the Valentine's Day theme).
An interesting thing about the website is that despite being two different sites, both FirstCry.com and GoodLife.com have an integrated interface. As a result, irrespective of the fact whether a consumer visits FirstCry.com or GoodLife.com, they can easily switch between the sites. This basically means that the traction is shared among the sites, which in turn can result in higher conversion rates.
This makes sense as the new site moves a step ahead to cater to parents who would be visiting the original site to buy products for their kids. On the other hand, those visiting the new site could also potentially become a customer for the other site.
Additionally, the fact that FirstCry.com has been there for a while now (it was launched back in November 2010) and hence should already have a reasonable number of customer base will also help both advertise the new site and bring in potential customers to the site.
Also, for ease of payments, the company has integrated the payment options available on FirstCry.com that include credit cards, net banking, debit cards and cash on delivery (COD) with that of the new site. The website also offers live chat and 24x7 customer support.
The company had mid last year raised $4 million from private equity firm SAIF Partners. It was its first institutional round and a member of SAIF Partners had joined the board at BrainBees. At that time, the company had mentioned that the funds would go into scaling up its operation staff, adding more inventory and categories, as well as setting up more warehouses.
The new website will face competition from both brands that have their own e-commerce sites (like Amway, Himalaya, The Body Shop and Fab India) as well as from general e-com players like Fashion and You, Snapdeal, Pepperfry and FutureBazaar, among others, which also offer personal care products. Given the pace with which new e-com sites are springing up in specialized verticals it was time someone looked at personal care products. The fact that it is not totally an independent site could help it get better traction starting with existing customers of Firstcry.
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