By Parul Manchanda

NEW DELHI: In an exclusive interview to PageoneAsia, Founder of Wellnessta, Sanjeev Singhai sheds light on how India can still become a $5 trillion economy by pushing up digital start-up amidst Covid-19.

Q. Can you tell us about Wellnessta and what inspired you to come up with this unique idea?

Wellnessta was born out of the necessity and need of today's world. It is like an e-commerce platform for personal grooming, wellness and fitness services where a customer can choose from various service providers, and a business can reach out to potential customers without the restrictions of geography. Wellnessta takes care of creating and handling the tech part of the personal grooming, wellness and fitness service providers and makes it available to the customers, who then can decide to pick whichever works the best for them. Like you said, we can call it India's first wellness-tech platform. There are already businesses which provide their services online, but they are mostly an extension of offline operations run by big brands. Wellnessta wants to create the same opportunity for the smaller businesses as well to democratize and diversify the market.

Q. What is your take on the wellness market in India amidst and post the covid 19 crisis?

Wellnessta was born out of the necessity and need of today's world. It is like an e-commerce platform for personal grooming, wellness and fitness services where a customer can choose from various service providers, and a business can reach out to potential customers without the restrictions of geography. Basically, Wellnessta takes care of creating and handling the tech part of the personal grooming, wellness and fitness service providers and makes it available to the customers, who then can decide to pick whichever works the best for them. Like you said, we can call it India's first wellness-tech platform. There are already businesses which provide their services online, but they are mostly an extension of offline operations run by big brands. Wellnessta wants to create the same opportunity for the smaller businesses as well to democratize and diversify the market.

To begin with an optimistic piece of data, the wellness industry in India is expected to grow at an annual CAGR of 18.4% for the period between 2019 to 2024. Now, we feel that the industry may actually grow much faster than this expected result because of the kind of conditions that have been created post Covid. The first thing is that people are now more aware of their physical and mental health and want to take the necessary steps to maintain a healthy lifestyle. This was already on the rise in the pre-covid world for various reasons like the increasingMinternet penetration, the awareness spread through social media, launch of health and fitness start-ups, and also government intervention through AYUSH ministry. The Prime Minister himself spread the message of health and fitness through campaigns like Fit India and International Yoga Day celebration every year. So, the market in India for wellness service providers and products was already growing before the pandemic hit. It is now growing at a faster pace, especially the market for online or internet service providers. We are hopeful for this growth to sustain and increase further.

Q. What are the important aspects that have come as a boon in pandemic towards the Start-up's & SMEs in Wellness Industry?
The wellness industry, like other industries, was impacted by the pandemic's impact and evolving job habits during this difficult period. Even before the pandemic, people were becoming more conscious of the importance of health, fitness and wellness. The pandemic has increased the growing need for health and wellness programmes, which has helped to substantiate long-term changes in demand. The wellness market in India was valued at Rs 901.07 Bn in 2018 and is forecast to reach Rs 2,463.49
Bn by 2024, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of ~18.40% during the 2019-2024 periods. Following the major covid-19 crisis in 2020, there has been a rise in consumer awareness and a greater desire among people to adopt a healthy lifestyle in 2021. It has paved the way for the health and wellness industry to progress at a rapid pace.Even though the businesses were closed, the market for wellness services remained high. In reality, demand has increased among people as a result of increased safety precautions and a healthier lifestyle that aids in the more successful and efficient battle against the virus. The situation earlier turned out to be more complex than it should be; providing the services without wellness professionals. This has allowed many wellness professionals to go digital and adapt the new technologies that can help them provide the services more efficiently like, Yoga, Gym/Home workout/ Online expertise on Diet foods, Meditation, etc. Wellnessta is the first wellnessTech organisation to launch a standalone digital marketplace for the industry.

Q. How India can still become a $5 trillion economy by pushing up Indian Digital start-up amidst Covid-19?
First of all, the vision of making India a $5 trillion economy is extremely important. This gives us a goal for which we can aim, and design are economic policies accordingly. Now, the manufacturing and other sectors have been contributing the Indian economy. However, the competition on the global level is immense, especially in the manufacturing sector because of a giant player like China. India is lucky to have a big pool of young people who are willing to innovate and create new things. At the same time, our government has pushed for building affordable digital infrastructure. This has given us the opportunity to have a healthy digital start-up ecosystem. Now, as India continues to invest in its digital start-up ecosystem, it can be expected that these businesses will eventually find a place in global market. By focusing on this area, we can generate revenues and it can have a significant contribution to the economy. So, we can say that India can still aim for becoming a $5 trillion economy. We have all the potential and the resources to do that.

Q. Do you think the shifting of wellness service vendors towards the Internet market will provide better growth opportunities amidst the Pandemic?
The positive thing is that vendors are adapting to our platform quite well and it shows that Wellnessta is actually solving a very crucial problem in the market and helping the businesses scale. We are witnessing that the vendor registrations have been rising consistently and the most important aspect is that many of these vendors are choosing to opt for a paid subscription which opens all the software features for them. Now, this is only possible when the vendors are actually benefitting from the platform and getting business from it. When we talk about technological challenges, then that is always there when you are bringing a change and introducing a new dimension to a market which has traditionally been offline. However, these challenges are not very big, and we usually solve them easily by taking the vendors through the platform features. Also, the platform is designed in a way that anyone can learn how to use it in a short time.

Q. According to you, who are your Competitor/Competition in the field and what's your strategy towards the same?
To be honest, we are our own competitors. But yes we have indirect competition from Listing companies like Nearby or Just Dial etc. We are starting Wellnessta at a very high point and we will compete to ourselves every day, set benchmarks and bring more ease of doing business for our vendors and delight to consumers. At the same time, we can safely say that there has been no other innovation and Wellnessta is the first to create a consolidated platform of the local service providers in health and wellness sector. We have the first mover advantage, and this is why, in a way, we are ahead of anyone else who decided to jump into the same arena.

Q. What are your revenue models and your expectation towards the financial growth of business post-covid-19 crisis (1-3yrs)?
For any digital start-up, the source or options or revenue generation are either through subscription, commission, or advertisement. The third option is not viable for us and therefore, we are primarily focusing on subscription and commissions money. We are providing a wonderful platform for the service providers and consumers to seamlessly connect with each other. For this, we may charge a small fee to further build our own platform and innovate. We have a very positive expectation when
it comes to financial growth of the business, especially after the covid crises because more and more people are now choosing to invest in their health and wellness. At the same time, they want to do it within their personal spaces to ensure social distancing. We think Wellnessta is providing the right services at the right time, and this will reward us financially.

Q. How your advanced Saas Based Cloud Software system is better and helping to narrow the market gap between Service Providers and customers?
Like we mentioned, our platform helps the service providers to showcase whatever they are offering, and the consumers can choose from various options that they have. Our software system helps the businesses to manage all aspects of business like creating an online profile, receiving payments, email and SMS notifications and bookings, etc. Because it is a centralized and uniform experience, consumers also do not get confused and can easily compare between difference service providers. Now, this is all happening like any e-commerce. For the first time, local service providers, who had geographical limitation, can now reach out to anyone. Also, consumers can avail servicers from a business which is in another city or state altogether. We have bridged the gap for everyone, and this is revolutionary.

Q. Wellnessta is revolutionizing the Personal Grooming and Wellness industries in India. Please elaborate.
We elaborated on it already. So, to quickly summarize, Wellnessta is helping local businesses to find an online presence and the customers to choose from a number of options. Before this, the only businesses available online were big brands. But now, you have smaller players who will compete for the space in the online market. This is empowering for the businesses and democratizing for the whole market. This is how Wellnessta is revolutionizing the personal grooming and wellness industry in India.