The UAE has made notable efforts to build a robust digital economy, creating an environment for local businesses to grow and thrive through online retail. In this landscape of opportunity, Amazon has emerged as a crucial partner, empowering SMBs with the tools, technology and services, helping them to scale their business online.
One clear example of this lies in the growing electrolyte drinks market valued at $38.3 billion in 2024, and projected to reach $66.6 billion globally by 2034. The UAE is no exception and Humantra, a homegrown wellness brand, is at the forefront of this trend.
In the premiere episode of Tamkeen, a new series by Amazon UAE and Economy Middle East, Charlie Wright, the founder and CEO of Humantra, shares the brand’s transformative journey, shedding light on how partnering with Amazon.ae propelled the company from a local startup to a global contender. Wright reveals how leveraging Amazon’s capabilities enabled Humantra to rapidly scale its online presence and expand its reach both regionally and internationally.
What inspired you to get into the wellness and hydration products market?
Health and wellness have not always been a part of my life. Prior to Humantra, I had two different iterations of businesses that worked to varying degrees of success.
With Humana, it was a real passion project in the early days. When it came to health and wellness, it was down to evaluating what to do in that space. Doing that legwork in the early days, it became really clear that the most universal health need and the most universal pursuit for wellness came in the form of hydration. It is not a niche need, but a universal one.
This gave us a big addressable market of people to talk to. Just like most people, I was struggling to drink enough water, I often had headaches and brain fog, and was always feeling tired. Our bodies are made up of 70 percent water. Our brains more. So all we really crave is more water.
Long story short, I partnered up with the team at Huda Beauty Investments, and fast forward four years, it has been a pretty wild ride.Â
What made you decide to start selling on Amazon, and when did the real growth pivot appear?
From day one, the plan was to build an omnichannel business, but Amazon was not a part of that plan from day one. I have lived here for 11 years and know how much of an Amazon-centric market the UAE is, so there was always a point in time when Amazon would come in. However, from the brand’s perspective, it was incredibly important that we were really close to our customers on our own channel. We were able to email customers, talk to them, understand how they love the product, and build product market fit, which was incredibly important for us as a brand.
We launched on Amazon in the UAE 12 months ago, which was a real conscious effort as Amazon is a huge part of the culture here. I have personally been a Prime member for a long time now, and I use it every day.
We saw that the search volume for electrolytes on the platform was increasing over the years and if we were not on there, people would be buying other electrolytes on the platform. Therefore, it made total sense for us to put that omnichannel strategy into place.
Fast forward 12 months now, and we are the number one selling supplement on Amazon.ae, not just the number one electrolyte. As a homegrown brand, this gave us visibility and traffic that we didn’t have on our own channel.
Apart from getting your product in front of millions of potential consumers, how has Amazon impacted your business growth?
The credibility that Amazon has given us has been incredibly powerful. People discovering Humantra for the very first time, seeing the bestseller badge, and seeing its position on the bestseller pages on Amazon gives us credibility. It is a great testament to the product and the reviews we have gotten.
Second, consumer experience has been a huge part of what we have done as a brand. The products we sell are not just electrolytes; they are a whole experience. We consider Humantra a community-led brand, but consumer experience is at the core of everything we do and we think about it at every touch point.
It can be very difficult managing deliveries and the easiest decision we made was to put our products into Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) because the delivery experience is unrivaled. You can order Humantra in the morning and get it that evening, which, from a consumer experience perspective, is second to none.
As a brand, we are always looking for incremental growth, not cannibalizing existing growth and revenue in the business, and Amazon has given us that incrementality in this region. Amazon contributes 20 percent of our revenue, and the channel only launched 12 months ago.
How has your presence on Amazon changed from the first day you were listed to now, being firmly established?
In the broader business context, we have managed to build a global business that started in the UAE. The UAE has always been a testing area where we build up playbooks, we test and learn. Amazon was exactly the same; we used it as a test market.
We did not have any real expectations about the impact it could have on the business, but upon reflecting 12 months later, Amazon as a channel is now 20 percent of the business. It is our fastest-growing channel in the business. We have reached a whole new consumer base without cannibalizing existing revenue. Instead, we found real incremental revenue to the business.
Going from having fairly limited expectations of what the channel could do for us to having the bestseller badge in the UAE and becoming the number one bestselling supplement on Amazon UAE has been incredible and one of our proudest achievements for a homegrown brand.
Just like our other channels, we built up an understanding and familiarity of how to operate on Amazon. Off the back of that, we launched in the UK.
We started to monitor search terms increasing in the UAE and thought, let’s have a look at what it is like in the UK. We saw that four times the number of people in the UK were searching for Humantra than they were in the UAE. So we asked, how can we very quickly get onto Amazon UK?
We are now on Amazon UK with a bestseller badge, in Saudi Arabia and Amazon UAE. We believe there is still a long road ahead of us. The category is still growing very quickly, and there is so much for us to do on the platform.
One thing we have done well as a business is to always look to improve. We never let great results mask what is happening, and we are always trying to find ways to optimize our display and visibility on the platform. We are always looking for tips and tricks that can improve performance.
Some of those key moments on the platform, like Prime Day, where Amazon gives us the ability to act like a big brand, providing all the big traffic, helped us set up to be able to provide our best-in-class products to people.
Read: Online retail evolves as Middle East shoppers embrace more strategic shopping
As a successful entrepreneur, what would your advice be to other entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to launch on Amazon in the UAE?
It all comes down to depth. It can be very easy to look at the platform and think: I can get my product on there and it will sell. However, one thing we have learned by working with the Amazon team and with our own agency’s support is that there is so much you can do on the platform.
If you invest time, energy and resources into learning how to improve on Amazon, it sets your products up for success. From a brand perspective, we have been impressed with the capability of Amazon and the opportunity it provides. So my advice is, put some time, effort and depth behind the platform because it will prove dividends.
