O2nutritions joins the pack of fitness startups with a platform providing health information and supplements

Ever wondered whether all those different dietary plans going around actually work? Or have you just wanted one good remedy for a migraine headache? If these questions have bothered you, you would have most likely hit Google or Quora and gone through a whole bunch of different sites to find the answers. To solve this problem Gaurav Arora and Amandeep Singh joined hands to launch O2nutritions.

Their platform aims to provide detailed information on all diet and health-related queries. Apart from providing users with a range of dietary supplements and vitamins, O2nutritions also has a transformation specialist or guide to provide workout routines, diet and supplements. The duo’s venture stemmed from a shared interest in the field of fitness and wellness.

What does the platform do?

The team is focussed on building a strong platform that gives users all the needed information on health and fitness, along with supplements and products. Gaurav says that they're investing heavily in building brand presence. The market size is huge, ranging from 18 to 45 years of age and hence provides a big funnel to work with. "We are playing around with different marketing and revenue frameworks to reach out to the target audience in the best possible way," he adds.

Traction and marketing

Launched in April 2015, the team has seen an increase in brand awareness by over 20 per cent. The team claims it will see a conversion rate of close to six per cent in the next few weeks with its A/B testing in place. O2nutritions claims to currently process close to 10 orders on a daily basis, with an average basket value of Rs 4250. "Basket abandonment of the website has gone down tremendously with clever tweaking of the checkout process, making it a seamless process from click to buy," Gaurav says.

The team started working on SEO, design amends and social media campaigns which helped put the word out and started ticking the sales sheet. They have recently partnered with RockMySales to look after social media channels and Google Adwords and retargeting campaigns, which they believe will further help leverage sales.

Challenges and growth

However, though the team has begun seeing some growth and traction on the sales side, it has had its share amount of challenges. "From building the right set of developers to building the site to getting the website to tick without bugs has been a challenge," says Gaurav, adding that building a free source for all fitness needs hasn't been easy either. They've had to curate the right information and tie up with reliable vendors.

Currently, O2nutritions is a bootstrapped venture. But the team is looking to get investors on board to achieve its vision for the brand. It aims to provide 18-24 hour live support with fitness experts to its customers. "Furthermore, we would also be looking to hire physicians and doctors in our team for consults on medical related queries. The brand aims to become the most trusted health supplements and fitness information provider in India," says Gaurav.

The market space

With changes happening in people’s lifestyle habits and income levels, the wellness industry in India has become a sunrise sector, and is set to grow by 20-30 per cent year on year. With several fitness aggregators hitting the market, the question of information provision and differentiator also arises.

According to a joint study by FICCI and PWC, the Indian wellness industry will touch Rs one trillion in 2015. There seems to be stronger investor attention in the space as well.

Rajesh Raju, MD, Kalaari Capital, says "We believe that wellness is the next frontier for tech-led disruption. Startups that are using technology to attain scale in addressing a large space like wellness will provide for great investment opportunities. Moreover, startups that build a trusted brand for the masses can generate outsized profits and ROI."

O2nutritions is currently in the B2C segment. It would be interesting to see if it will enter the B2B segment as well.

Website