The company sold over 15k units within 96 hours of its launch
Bengaluru: Layers aim to transform the way mobile skins are perceived in the country with quirky, original, and premium quality products. Built on a unique UV technology for the digitally savvy audience- Gen Z and millennials, the brand is targeting a revenue of 25 crores in just a span of one year.
Building the right skin
Co-founders, Neel Gogia and Shlok Shrivastava were aiming for the niche and wanted to break through and make the ‘mobile skin’ category a prospective market within the retail industry. With this intention, they brought Layers- one of India’s first creator-led D2C brands. Shlok is a digital creator and YouTuber, popularly known as Tech Burner.
The category of ‘mobile skins’ is a phenomenon globally and is growing with speed, but in India is very niche and almost insignificant. “Thus, we were prepared for the uphill task of not just building brand and product awareness but also category awareness. The task at hand was to create a market, build consumer awareness regarding it and then, sell the product. The most amount of effort has gone into explaining to the consumers what skins are, how to use them, how to apply them, and how using them can make you feel better about the experience of using phones,” Shlok mentions when talking about the opportunity they saw in order to shape Layers and make it market ready.
Neel adds, “We have been able to bridge the gap between non-existence and popularity, I would say we are somewhat in the middle. At this juncture, a majority of consumers are aware of what mobile skins are, 2 million unique visitors on the website is proof enough. Instead of creating a product, we created an overall experience for our consumers. Every touchpoint was uniquely designed, keeping our audience in mind. This is the reason why our audience not only accepted the product and the category but gave it immense love. We were able to sell 15k units within 96 hours of launch- a remarkable feat that rarely occurs”.
Consumer demand
The founders agree that the category is growing at a consistent rate. And since the time they made their way into the market, they have witnessed consumer demand for the product growing voraciously. “Looking at the current growth, I am certain that we will be playing a significant role in the growth of this category. If the growth continues to be at the same scale as it is, we’ll be touching the Rs 25 crores mark in the first year itself,” Neel confidently admits.
The team as a brand is building a trend instead of following any. With Layers, they aim to make mobile skins as a symbol of fashion that customers want to incorporate into their lives and daily fashion. There are a wide range of options and collections available at the Layers Website which the customers can pick and choose from according to their personality. The aesthetically pleasing mobile skins can make it a great conversation starter in the future.
Overcoming the challenges to set milestones
The biggest challenge that Layers, as a brand faced, was the Covid lockdown. The machine that the team was importing from China got lost in customs. Layers also struggled to get a location for its office. There were several other challenges such as the initial team which consisted of 5 people out of which 3 opted out of the project, production, as well as the website, was halted too for the longest time due to the pandemic. It was another hassle to select the correct production material, machines, and design for the website to begin with.
However, Layers as a brand believes in making their consumers feel satisfied and happy with the product that they receive and not feel taken advantage of or robbed of a premium experience. That’s why the founders chose to eye the positives and overcome the challenges by creating something unique. This has helped them bag their huge customer base and they are planning to sell at least 30,000 skins a month from hereon.
Brownie Points
- Sold over 15,000 skins in 4 days.
- Gained 50k followers even before the launch of Layers.
- The brand has spent less than Rs 5 lakh for performance marketing since launch and will spend Rs 20 lakh per year month for influencer marketing. By tapping into their existing industry network they are expecting to get a 2-3X return on their investments.
- Bullish on growth the brand has launched over Rs 60 lakh towards technology upgradation.
First appeared in The India D2C Yearbook 2022
