Cossouq.com bills itself as a ‘sensibly curated marketplace’ for skin, personal care and cosmetics. Its USP is that it promotes equality and its powerful launch campaign in end-2022 reflected that. The marketplace promises to promote all brands on the platform – from the international to the popular to the lesser known homegrown – equally. Its ongoing Pride Month promos build on the stance.
One wondered why the brand that launched in August 2021 seemed to be punching above its weight with the #SamjhaKar campaign of 2022.
“The objective of the campaign was not to attract more customers, but to build trust as we steadily built the base of brands on the platform,” explains Meet Jatakia, Director of Branding and Marketing.
From 30-odd brands at launch, the marketplace had grown to about 450 brands and 25,000 products, with a majority of them being homegrown. International brands started getting onboarded in mid-2022, the latest of which is Canadian haircare brand Voir. Yet the perception at the time of the #Samjhakar campaign launch wasn’t ideal.
Not being a large tech-backed or investor-backed company, the spends were minimal and this resulted in a perception problem, explains Jakatia. The D2C platform is in the process of working on the website before it ups the spends on performance to get in more customers. #Samjhakar was born to address this specific issue.
“The trending keywords that we observed at the time were things like ‘Is Cossouq fake or real’? Whenever a new brand without high profile backing comes in, people tend to wonder who is behind it, and what the profile of the company is. We were also based in Ahmedabad – not in Mumbai or Bengaluru. There were consumer trust issues. We did not have a celebrity face. But the #Samjhakar campaign worked for us. One measure is that before the campaign, the orders were predominantly COD. Today 80 pc of them are prepaid and consumers have started trusting the brand. Many also liked the positioning we have taken,” added Jakatia.
It’s not just gender equality that the brand is batting for, but all forms of equality – be it skin colour, body size or brand.
“Not all players have a range of brands from international to homegrown. We believe in equality and in giving all of them an equal space. For customers, the idea is to give them a unique experience. In two years, we have seen about 1 million visitors and 12,000 orders. Adding brands is not a big deal. Customers should rely on the website and that we offer authentic products,” notes Parth Patel, Founder and CEO.
Work on the website and enhancing the customer experience is on, parallel to growing the number of brands on the platform. Another international brand will be onboarded soon, says Patel, adding that Cossouq was not the core business he has been focused on till date. Whatever growth has happened, has come about largely organically.
Of the 12,000 orders, an estimated 30 pc is from repeat customers. The frequency is increasing and the #SamjhaKar period saw a spike in traffic albeit on a small base, notes Patel.
By 2026, the intent is to grow the scale to 1 million visitors and 12,000 orders per month. A second campaign will be launched towards the end of 2023, as will performance marketing efforts that were not pursued aggressively till date.
“We saw that homegrown brands were not promoted well on marketplaces. We might have more than 1,500 to 2,000 brands on Cossouq by 2026. While there will be a lineup of international brands, the majority will be homegrown. At that stage, we will look at physical retail presence,” he signs off.
The intent clearly is not to compete with the biggies but to carve a niche for itself. If that be the case Cossouq seems to be taking baby steps, but in the right direction.
