Hi everyone. And welcome to MacRAE’S Growth Challenge Podcast. Inside with B2B and manufacturing leaders, where we uncover their stories, strategies, and solutions to overcoming growth challenges in their industries. I’m your host Maria. And in each episode, we will dive deep with founders, CEOs, and industry experts to explore how they scale, innovate, and lead in today’s competitive landscape. So let’s get started.
Today we have Raj from Obvi. Nice to meet you. How are you today?
Nice to meet you. I’m happy to have a conversation with you about ⁓ all things shop. I think there’s a lot of things that Obvi’s doing, a lot of comparable brands in our space that are really showing other brands what it takes to scale and grow.
Awesome, I’m really excited to dive into all of this, Raj, but why don’t you start with introducing basically what is it that you do and what is Obvi?
Yep, awesome. So my name is Raj Shah. I’m the director of sales operations here at Obvi. So everything that has to do with retail and putting Obvi un a shelf from ⁓ approaching the retailers to kind of managing the accounts that we’re currently in, that kind of all falls un my plate.
think we’ve took our journey from D to C to retail in the past two and a half years and scaled it up to about 20,000 doors between about 12 different retailers. So that’s just a little bit of background about me. More un Obvi, we are a health and wellness brand, Target Tours Women. And we started in 2019 as a D to C brand where we were only selling online.
And I think most of our, I guess, following or our customers or large growth came in with the fact that we wanted to make supplements fun again.
cool packaging, great taste, and actual formulations that drive results. So, you know, in the first two years of launch, we actually came out with 26 different flavors of collagen peptides. And this is everywhere. Anything from a fruity cereal to your pumpkin spice latte. We had all the flavors. And that’s really where we got majority of our following. Fast forward.
to now. Our DTC is still thriving, but now we’re seeing a lot of growth potential in retail, as I said, that we are now placed at $19,000.
⁓ so you were mentioning that you guys started as an online brand and then you guys went into retail. and one of your biggest successes, why you were able to actually, ⁓ stay competitive and scale into retail was because you were doing a lot of variety of like flavors and products. had like, you mentioned 26 products, from the start, right? So I guess my question.
Yeah, we… Yeah.
⁓ no, sorry.
Cool. So how has the business changed from a marketing and sales standpoint when you guys had to start focusing un attracting more retailers compared to consumers?
Yeah, I think…
I don’t think our mindset ever changed because when you’re a D2C native brand and you start at D2C, I think you build your brand as such. I think there is certain metrics and KPIs and data that ⁓ as a brand making that leap towards retail, you do have to acknowledge or at least look at.
for us was our retention.
our retention rate un these products that we were launching un D to C was very, very high. The same people that would buy the first new flavor would continuously buy that for the next given months. So when we saw that, we came up with an idea of we want to meet our customers where they’re at. Instead of the three to five day shipping time, we’d rather be at their local vitamin shop or their local GNC or Walmart.
So that was a tall tale sign for us that we need to start attacking retail. And as far as what has ⁓ really changed for us is-
I think the idea of competition gets that much more apparent when a CPG brand that was D2C native now is in retail, right? Because now you’re going to the stores and you see your competition right there, right next to you, maybe two or three dollars cheaper, two or three dollars higher, right? So understanding that and…
kind of just adjusting and doing the things you need to do to stay competitive and also making sure that you’re providing something different than all the other products that you’re sitting next to. What we’ve also learned when we…
retail was it’s not a copy and paste type of thing. So whatever was working un D to C, you can’t just copy and then paste that into retail. I’ll give you an example of that is we launched as a flavored collagen brand. When we went to retail, our first retailer was Vitamin Shop, we thought that we can do the same thing in store, which was take our best flavors and put it un the shelf.
What we didn’t understand is that 80 % of the collagen and takers
take un flavored, right? So now you’re already working within a niche that has a niche, right? And you’re, you’re, and we try to launch as a flavored collagen brand, not knowing that 80 % only take un flavored. So when we only launched flavored collagen powders, it didn’t do as well.
So, you we learned that very, very quick into our first retail. We changed that up and now, you know, our unflavored not only in Vitamin Shop, our first retailer, but it’s our number one product in retail. So again, launching as a flavored company, but then retailers completely different for us where we’ve, you know, added in the unflavored.
What is it that you guys are currently doing, especially with regards to, let’s say, digital marketing or your, you know, sales and networking opportunities to, or your product? Like, what is it that you guys are working on right now to stay competitive and ahead of the curve?
Yeah, think we use a lot of, our CMO is one of, I might sound biased, but he’s one of the best in the industry. He looks for partners in all aspects of marketing for a CPG brand, so whether that be affiliate marketing.
certain partners that we can partner with on Meta, on TikTok, on, we’ve started doing Instagram live shopping where, you know, our lives are becoming, you know, it’s live videos that our customers can, one, engage with, two, shop with, right? So that’s huge.
We also have, also the largest college and community on Facebook. So if you look us up on Facebook at OBVI, just type in OBVI community, we’re at 120, maybe a little bit higher, 120,000 members on our community. So any type of new launches or even new retailers that we’re getting into, we’re able to take our community and drive traffic to wherever we really want to because of
because of the high, you know, support that we do get from our community base. And again, this isn’t a community where the brand is doing most of the talking and just trying to promote their products or promote our sales or anything like that. This is a group of majority women where they come together and…
tell the community where they are in their journey with OBVI. So most of our testimonials, most of what we’re going to be doing next, most of our new flavors that we launch come from our community.
That’s awesome. So you guys listen basically to your customers and then adjust it. And if I’m getting this correctly is that your marketing efforts are pretty much are still staying towards serving your, you know, and customer though, the people who are going to be consuming your product, no matter where they’re going to find it, whether it’s online, on retail, social.
Like whatever it is, your marketing effort, sounds like it’s all still focused on the consumer, the end consumer and adjusting and listening to them and creating strategies that will appeal to them. Is that correct?
100%. You know, it’s great to be on shelf, but if you have no one taking you off of shelf, that’s a bigger problem than anything else. So yeah, yeah, you definitely hit that on the nail. definitely, even if we’re marketing for retail, it’s letting our customers know, hey, Midwest area, we are now at your local fresh time, right?
which in fresh time is very prominent in the Midwest. So things like that where it’s a double edged sword as far as we’re making sure our customers know that you can find us closer to you and then also making sure the retailers are happy because we’re promoting their retail stores as far as, you can find us here now.
How are you guys using platforms such as Perplexity, ChatGPT, all of these new ways, the way that people search, right? Like no longer people are really just searching a keyword. They’re now searching solutions to their problems, right? And how they ask questions is so quickly changing. How are you guys adapting to those changes?
I think our website right now is amazing. We have a lot of support systems that are used as AI, like a chat bot or even some of the AI UGC content that can be created for our products. Show that justification.
than just reading a little blurb about the product. So if you can see the product in motion, if you can see the powder of our products, it’s very, very dissolvable. That kind of show, it’s not only reading it, but now you’re seeing it, which makes a more educated purchase for the consumer so they feel good about it when they press checkout.
the health industry, it’s an extremely competitive industry, from products to services to courses to programs to gyms to my gosh, when it comes to health and wellness, there’s just so much competition out there.
What are you seeing being one of the biggest upcoming challenges to just all companies in the health and wellness industry?
I think there’s a couple things. One is if you are a consumable health and wellness product, Or like something that has a flavor to it either powder or drink.
I think if you’re going to make something healthy, making sure that it tastes good, that’s what builds the retention, because anybody can try a product for the first time and never come back to it. And if that’s your MO, then you’re…
is just a one-hit wonder at that point. our bread and butter lies in making something healthy that also tastes good. So once you try it, you’re definitely coming back. That’s number one. Number two is if you can master those two things and then also make sure that your pricing is great, where now you’re offering something that’s healthy, that tastes good at a very affordable price, especially in today’s market or economy. ⁓
health
and wellness, especially supplements, they’re seen as a luxury product. making luxury products affordable, again, with it tasting good and having real results, I think that’s ⁓ a recipe for success.
Yeah, and then placement itself, right? Another thing that we thought going into retail was, we are a supplement company. We can only be in supplement stores. But currently, our grocery channel is our number one channel for the brand. So knowing where, where your customer, where your personal customer shop at, two, where can you build net new customers?
right? And kind of just making sure your pricing, your flavoring, and your actual formulation is not only, doesn’t only drive results, but it’s also different, right? Give you an example of that. Most of our, you know, since our collagen powders when we launched, we’ve extended our catalog to a lot more
Supplements like hydration like greens like fat burners But the brand theme that we have across our whole catalog is our five types of collagen So even our greens has our five types of collagen, right? On the consumer end with that what that kind of gives in is I’m getting a Koreans product, but I’m also getting collagen. That’s the bang for your buck
Yeah, you’re getting that protein and the minerals and the vitamins. It’s perfect. It’s so hard to find a combination of protein and the minerals and the vitamins that you need in one product. Some products are just proteins, some products are just vitamins and minerals. So getting something together that is in one. Also with the busy schedule that people have, what could be easier than just taking two scoops of something
Exactly.
Yeah.
mixing it with water and then just chugging it knowing that it’s good for you and then just keep going with your day, right?
Yeah, it’s more of a convenience factor. It’s even a price point factor, right? Like, yeah, I can buy greens here and then collagen here, and now I’m at $60. Or I can spend, you know, $29.99 for a collagen green supplement.
Yeah,
absolutely. And again, like not everybody always has time to sit down and have a full meal that will give them those things. And it’s still important to maintain, you know, baseline of health no matter how you’re going to get it, right? Yeah. Question for you. I’m so curious to know, again, everything is changing so quickly.
Yep, yep, 100%.
AI, technologies, everything is like, we’re really on the cusp of a new thing that is going to come down the pipeline. What is the vision for Obvi next, let’s say five years? Like, where do you guys see yourself?
We are taking a full…
you know, 100 % approach to retail. Again, just because our DTC is at a point where now we’ve been online for about six years, we have great retention there. So it’s always, we’re always gonna be growing our DTC, but retail in the next five years, we see our dream list or our kill list being, you know, succeeded as far as the Albertsons, the Kroger, the Whole Foods, Wegmans.
that not only will kind of help our personal customers really get closer to them with our products, but this will bring in the net new customers that I was just talking about.
We need to be on shelf at Whole Foods and Wegmans because if you look at the aisle right now, it’s just not as…
as inviting that it should be. And again, I could sound biased here, but again, with our packaging, with our flavoring and just our design, it does stop people in their tracks. So in the next five years, I see at least another anywhere from 30 to 40,000 doors for us across major retail.
and really honing in on what Obvi stands for, is becoming the obvious choice for women’s health and wellness needs.
Awesome! I love that! Raj, thank you so much for your time today! This was wonderful!
Thank you so much, Maria. It was a great talking to
Inside the growth strategy of a health and wellness brand that's redefining supplements for women
When Obvi launched in 2019, they had a simple but powerful mission: make supplements fun again. What started as a direct-to-consumer collagen brand with bold flavors and eye-catching packaging has evolved into a retail powerhouse with presence in 20,000 doors across 12 major retailers.
In a recent conversation on the MacRAE'S Growth Challenge Podcast, Raj Shah, Director of Sales Operations at Obvi, shared the brand's journey from digital-native startup to retail success story—and the hard-earned lessons learned along the way.
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