Passionate, vocal and savvy, Noureen & Naseef are a young entrepreneur couple, solving a problem with sustainable alternatives for menstrual products. From breaking stigmas to launching new products based on personal experience, this couple is both unconventional and inspiring. By joining hands with Flipkart, Noureen and Naseef aim to reach more customers in Tier II and III cities, providing them with quality products and making their lives a little easier. Here is their story.
Until the pandemic brought everything to a halt, Noureen Aysha and Naseef Nazar had no idea that they would soon be breaking stereotypes related to feminine hygiene and menstrual products. Before they met in 2020, life had taken them on very different paths.
While they both studied at the Mangalore Institute of Technology and Engineering, campus placement took Naseef to Pune. In a few years, the desire to helm a business of his own brought him to Kerala. Noureen was brought up partially in Mumbai and then in the UAE. After college, she worked overseas before her father retired and her family moved to Kerala.
Cut to 2020, Noureen and Naseef were engaged, and ready to start their new life in Kochi. While couples are expected to spend time planning wedding attires, guest lists and honeymoon destinations, this young entrepreneurial duo was brainstorming ideas for their new business in Kochi.
Read on to know how they built a brand that champions sustainable menstrual products in their own words.
A Spark Ignites During Lock Down
I’m Noureen and I’m the co-founder of FemiSafe. I’ve used menstrual cups since 2017 when I discovered its benefits while working in the UAE. When I got to India, I noticed they were not as common here. I used to keep telling everybody about them as I am very vocal about periods, menstrual health, and women’s empowerment in general.
During the pandemic, we had these women from Kudumbashree Mission who used to come to collect garbage once a week. I remember thinking how difficult it is to collect waste like this by hand. I kept wondering why a sustainable and easy-to-use alternative like a menstrual cup wasn’t as popular here.
I spoke to Naseef and it was like a Eureka moment for both of us.
You Don’t Know Until You Know
Menstrual hygiene is a topic that is mired in misconceptions, social taboos, fear and anxiety. We did surveys with our friends and family and found that only 50% of people knew about menstrual cups. Out of those, just 5% of people knew about a female wellness and menstrual products brand.
Along with that, nobody talks about a woman’s bodily processes. There is a lack of awareness as this is considered a taboo subject. Since menstrual cups are intravaginal devices, there’s a whole myth around hymens breaking. This is simply not true.
So, that’s how our brand FemiSafe began.
We knew we were solving a problem. While there were some menstrual cups in the market, after using around 80 different products myself, I found a number of difficulties. So, Naseef and I decided to design a better product.
Unlike other couples who spend time planning the wedding venue and what to wear, we were actually planning what to name the brand, getting the IE code, the GST registration and everything else!
Watch their story:
No-Filter Conversations About Menstrual Health
Just three months after our wedding, we launched our brand. Social media was an important channel for us to reach women across India. By educating women on how to use our menstrual products and what their benefits are, we broke stigmas around menstruation.
Even our products are a direct result of the problems women face. For instance, our menstrual cup comes with a longer cord that makes it easy to pull out. It is reusable so we can be more sustainable. Even its glossy finish makes it stain-resistant unlike other products, so women can use it for years at a stretch. We were also the first in India to design a non-electric sterilizer to clean the cups with ease.
When a group of college students reached out to me to take an online session about menstrual awareness in 2021, I realized how important it is to be vocal about these issues. Since then, speaking at schools and college, and breaking taboos around menstrual wellness has become second nature to me. And when I hear about women who try our products for the first time ever and have a good experience, I can’t be more satisfied!
Scaling Barriers With Flipkart
Hi, I’m Naseef and I’ll pick up the thread of our story from here. Before launching FemiSafe, we realized other brands were targeting the Tier 1 market. There, consumers are more aware and have easier access. We saw a big market outside of that. So, we thought Flipkart is the best partner to start with because it has the best penetration among the Tier II and III cities. And this is where the untapped market is.
The strategy to introduce our menstrual products on Flipkart paid off as today it is our highest-selling channel. We get close to 35% of the total revenue from orders on Flipkart. Secondly, every time we launch a new product, we are able to gain traction through Flipkart much faster than other marketplaces.
We also noticed that Flipkart customers are more likely to review and rate their purchase. When there are more reviews, customers take it as a validation, and we get more orders.
For the first two years, we didn’t know much about e-commerce and launching a consumer brand. So, we didn’t leverage The Big Billion Days. Last year is when I truly began to believe in the power of BBD and we saw a big surge – almost 80% – in sales. This year we are planning to further optimize our inventory and achieve 4X growth during BBD.
Even our Flipkart account manager has been very helpful in giving suggestions and asking us to book consignments whenever we are low in inventory in any of the warehouses. In the last 8 months we have been able to grow mainly because of that support from our account manager.
I tell everyone that if your product has a user-facing marketplace, come to Flipkart rather than spending money on social media and search ads.
Fulfilling Gaps One Product At A Time
While reducing environmental impact is one part of our story, equally or more important is bridging gaps that women face on a daily basis.
Today, apart from menstrual products like period panties and panty liners, we have intimate care and grooming products. Our brand has grown because now women located in the farthest reaches of the country get access to our products via Flipkart
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