How This Tiny Menstrual Care Startup Beat the Tampon Shortage
First it was baby formulation, now it’s tampons. The summer season of 2022 is shaping up to be the season of the great tampon lack with both cotton and plastic in high desire and small quantity. Scarce materials and supply chain problems have left consumers scrambling to uncover the products and solutions they have prolonged relied on for menstrual care.
August, a direct-to-client interval treatment model, has so far managed to skirt the scarcity. Launched in 2021 by recent college or university grads Nadya Okamoto and Nick Jain, the Brooklyn-centered business has avoided functioning out of stock even though some of its rivals have offered out of products, and it has not been due to a absence in desire. August created far more than 30 p.c thirty day period-more than-thirty day period earnings growth all through its first six months of operation, in accordance to the founders. Okamoto, 24, and Jain, 22, released the 8-individual business with $2 million in funding elevated mainly from angel buyers.
Below are three techniques August positioned by itself to beat the tampon shortage.
1. Stockpiling stock.
Because Okamoto and Jain introduced August through the pandemic, when offer chain challenges and pantry loading led to empty retailer cabinets throughout the U.S., the pair have only at any time operated in volatile sector circumstances. And they have confronted their very own challenges with keeping stock. After experiencing 130 percent growth in regular tampon income amongst October and November of 2021 and advertising out of item, the co-founders made a decision to double the amount of stock they formerly kept on hand, and to constantly have a backup prepare for similar situations in the potential.
“We have only at any time witnessed [a market] this lousy,” Okamoto says, adding that when it comes to the trustworthiness of the supply chain, she and Jain “have quite lower anticipations.”
2. Steering clear of plastic.
Though conventional menstrual solutions are built with plastic, August lower plastic out of its pads and packaging, applying it only for applicators. All of the company’s packaging is manufactured from recycled elements, the items come in compostable polyvinyl alcoholic beverages wrappers, and their plastic tampon applicators are recyclable. Working with sustainable products and leaving plastic out of the equation led to difficulties getting vendors and companies, but the choice has helped the company steer clear of the scarcity, according to Okamoto.
“Unexpectedly, the reality that we are a lot more sustainable implies that we are not dealing with the similar offer chain shortages as other organizations,” she suggests, including that some period care brand names make pads with enough plastic for three to five plastic bags. “Where by they could be struggling to get more plastic materials, we are not going through that.”
3. Pricing for accessibility.
August’s costs fall on the lessen conclude in comparison to other direct-to-shopper brand names, with a box of eight tampons retailing for $9.50. In the 27 states that have an energetic tax on menstrual items, August covers the tampon tax so its consumers never have to.
“A lot of [the strategy] is pricing at what we can,” Okamoto states. “Element of it was also trying to make guaranteed that no matter what the industry common was, we could form of press the boundary on what accessible time period care appears like.”