How this woman entrepreneur shifted its skincare brand from Sweden to India during the pandemic

Gautami Agarwal, founder of skincare brand SKÖG, always had a sensitive skin and resorted to using a lot of natural ingredients found in her kitchen. This became a tradition of sorts as she moved to countries from New Delhi, India to Vienna, Paris, London, and Stockholm for education and work.

In Stockholm where natural ingredients were rich and abundant, she began wondering about a business opportunity in the skincare space when friends and colleagues kept asking how her skin and hair were well-maintained.

“I got really good feedback and reactions from them that people started asking for more products and how I was making it. That is when I thought of taking a business approach and creating a proper product range for sensitive skin,” she tells HerStory.

The journey

Gautami studied Bachelors in fashion business from Istituto Marangoni in Paris and pursued Masters in strategic entrepreneurship and innovation from King’s College in London. 

She then began working in the luxury art market in Stockholm, selling high-end art worth millions of euros and selling limited edition art pieces to new geographies internationally in Arab, Japan, the US, among others.  

In 2018, she embarked on her entrepreneurial journey from her home kitchen on the east coast of Sweden. Word-of-mouth through friends and colleagues helped increase customers for her natural, vegan, PETA-certified luxury skincare brand SKÖG, which means forest in Swedish. 

However, Gautami was stuck in India for a long time when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, leading to international border closures.  

“I had come to visit my family in India but didn't know how long this could go on and I couldn't stop. That is when I decided to move the production here,” she says.

Gautami got the company registered in India and considering that the natural ingredients make the brand unique, she began sourcing ingredients like Birch, Elderflower, Petitgrain from Sweden. 

While the research in ingredients continued in Sweden, the entrepreneur moved operations and manufacturing in India to make sure most things remain in her control. 

Now headquartered in Delhi, the brand was commercially launched in April 2021. The entrepreneur says the products, priced between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,500,  are premium quality products offered at affordable ranges. 

The skincare brand has a website each for global audience and India and sells domestically through marketplaces like Tata Cliq Luxury, Nykaa, Amazon, Sublime Life, and Flipkart. 

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Challenges and the way forward

Shifting the business across continents was not easy.  

Gautami’s experience of understanding the client, marketing, and sales was majorly in the European market and the sudden change to a whole new market was difficult. However, she is now learning to adapt to the market and consumer sentiments in India.

“The beauty trends in Sweden and Europe are very different from those in India. While people there want a minimalist skincare routine, consumers in India are happy to follow a seven to ten step skincare routine. People are really into having specific products for specific needs,” she explains.

But the entrepreneur could not have tapped India’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) market at a more opportune time. Today, the country is home to over 800 direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands worth $45 billion, and a $100 billion market projection by 2025, according to Amit Sharma, co-founder, and CEO of ShopX. 

Consumers in India have warmed up to shopping online especially due to the pandemic-induced restrictions and deep internet penetration across the country.

Domestic market contributes to 90 percent of SKOG’s sales and revenue and the remaining comes from its website for a global audience as well as through a distributor in Singapore and retailer in Hong Kong. The entrepreneur says consumers outside India are taking a liking to its brand and product aesthetics. 

Presently focused on formulating more products and developing SKUs, it plans on selling through more distributors outside India. In the next year, SKOG aims to set up its retail stores as well.