Whilst the outlook for some after Covid is bleak and businesses struggle to find a foothold in our ‘new normal’ other products and businesses have managed to flourish despite the tricky conditions. Entrepreneur Mark Shepherd had an idea long before lockdown to bring an affordable new collagen supplement to market and after sourcing an ethical yet effective product he was happy with was all ready to go… But of course, the new restrictions mean he was unable to put any traditional retail plans in place, so he had a product to sell with no shelves open to stock it!

As a successful entrepreneur Mark knew that diversifying was the key and decided to concentrate on a social and digital presence only for both sales and marketing.

Reverse Life Marine Collagen launched on Saturday 23rd May while we were deep in lockdown and with a basic shopfront website for sales. Social pages had been set up on Instagram and Facebook and the team behind Reverse Life started posting relevant content and following accounts that may be interested in a new beauty product. They talked about the benefits of their collagen on hair, skin and nails and the hyaluronic acid and vitamins also included and thanks to some early eager testers there were some great testimonials to share!

Day One there were three orders from customers willing to take a chance, but by the end of the first week sales were just over £3,000 and nearly 20 bottles a day were flying out of the door. The Reverse Life team jumped on the momentum and sent bottles out to celebrities who loved posting on Instagram and soon the grid was full of influencers and TV stars talking about taking the delicious marine collagen drink every day, such Christine McGuinness, Peter Andre, Ester Dee, Tanya Bardsley, Carole Malone, Nicole Sealey and Amy Childs.

The relationship with Peter Andre was so good Reverse Life sponsored his new reality TV show – The Andres on The Sun YouTube channel – and the first episode alone secured 100 new orders upon airing. A new site was launched to make ordering even easier and by the end of June – only a month after launch – sales were up to £1,500 a day! By now the first customers were starting to post their fantastic results socially and in July sales really exploded, so much so stock ran out a few times and there was a backlog of orders. Because beauty treatments were cancelled over summer the company got an added boost from those seeking an alternative to their usual facials and injectables.

Reverse Life achieved £100,000 sales in only 59 days, £250,000 in August alone and if customers keep coming back for the product that they love then the team expects to get close to £1.5m by the end of 2020 and £2.5m in first year.

They now regularly achieve sales of £12,000 a day and made £500,000 last weekend alone – making this year a massive success for this brand-new product by using social and digital alone, and now wanting to share that success the company is looking to supply smaller businesses and parents working from home who can sell Reverse Life themselves and have created free ‘starter sell boxes’ for anyone wanting to be part of the collagen beauty boom!

Mark said: ‘Honestly we were worried launching something new during such uncertain times, but we believed in Reverse Life Marine Collagen and wanted to get it out there. They only way we could see to do this was to really push the benefits socially and sell digitally, and because no one could get into a beauty salon we were lucky that customers were willing to try a new way to smooth those wrinkles and give their nails and hair a boost. Our plan worked for us and the product works for our customers’.

REVERSE LIFE MARINE COLLAGEN includes a massive 10,000mg dose of collagen, hyaluronic acid and plenty of supporting vitamins in each 25ml daily dose. It helps with skin ageing, hair loss, gut health, energy levels and wound healing. See www.reverselife.co.uk or follow on Instagram @ReverseLife_