Ritual Isn’t A Vitamin Brand-It’s A Technology Company


Ritual Isn’t A Vitamin Brand-It’s A Technology Company

When Kat Schneider was pregnant she turned her house upside down to get rid of products with ingredients she couldn’t get behind. While Schneider replaced everything from her cleaning supplies to her deodorant, she could not find the perfect prenatal vitamin. So she decided to build her own which is now known as Ritual. But Schneider didn’t build a vitamin brand- she built a technology company.

Ritual is known for being traceable and sustainable. The company’s mission around traceability goes far beyond the scope of its ingredients and the way they work in the body. Ritual is committed to offering transparency into key decisions it makes and the impact on both its customers and the planet. For example, Ritual doesn’t just tell you that it includes omega-3 DHA sourced from microalgae. It explains that the microalgae is grown in sustainable plots in Saskatoon, Canada, saving up to 750 anchovies and sardines per bottle. Ritual also puts a face to the manufacturing partner and scientific team that oversees this process. Then it directs you to all the research that explains why it opted for this specific kind of omega-3 fatty acid, and at the specific dosage in your multivitamin. In some cases, Ritual even shows you the clinical trial details of their formula. All of Ritual’s bottles are recycled material and as of today they announced their entire mailing experience is approximately 83% recycled materials.

But all of these traceable and sustainable practices don’t come from the branding Ritual has done, they come from the technology that Ritual has built. “Technology is at the core of everything we do and enables us to bring our mission of transparency and empowering consumers to know what they put in their bodies and why beyond our product design and into each facet of the customer experience,” says Schneider Traditional retail models can limit a brand’s ability to explore true traceability and transparency. By leveraging industry-leading technology, such as GatsbyJS and EmberJS, Ritual’s clean, modern stack website guides customers through an educational, traceable purchase experience and enables them to explore Ritual’s ingredient forms, dosages, supplier information and the content they’ve created to explain them all.   

With team of over 15 engineers, product managers, and designers empowered to learn from their customers, iterate quickly, and continuously develop new ways to provide the best experience possible, Ritual’s app design revolves around the “Habit Loop,” which is a three-part cycle that with enough time and repetition, enables the brain to put certain behavior on autopilot – effectively turning it into a habit. The Habit Loop’s three steps are: “Cue,” a daily dosage reminder; “Routine,” a marker that the user took their vitamins; and a “Reward,” which the brain associates with the celebration once you’ve taken your vitamins. The app is integrated into Apple Health, so that users can track their daily intake of nutrients like vitamin D and omega-3, along with physical activity.

Now when it comes to the science behind the actual vitamins, Ritual products contain nutrients lacking in most diets, in high-quality forms the body can absorb and utilize. As an example, you’ll often see Folate, an essential nutrient for all women, included as Folic Acid (a synthetic form) in many supplements instead of methyltetrahydrofolate (the more active, food form). This can be problematic, as up to 40% of women have a genetic variation making it hard to properly utilize certain forms of Folate. Ritual doesn’t use Folic Acid; instead, they use a more bioavailable form, 6S-5 Methyltetrahydrofolate (MTHF).

“Transparency is at the heart of everything we do. We rigorously test for identity, purity, strength, and composition, so you can be sure that what’s on the label is what’s in your capsules. We use a third party lab to test for heavy metals, microbes, allergens, and other contaminants, ensuring they are below levels deemed safe by the FDA’s current Good Manufacturing Process. Going above and beyond, we also invested in a university-led double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial — the gold standard for clinical study design — to quantify the impact of Essential for Women,” explained Schneider.  

Schneider also explained novel technology behind the delivery system of the actual pills.”Using a sophisticated beadlet-in-oil technology that separates dry from oily nutrients in two small capsules per daily serving. This technology is designed to be gentle on an empty stomach — with delayed release capsules designed to dissolve later, in the less sensitive, more absorptive areas of the gut,” said Schneider. “We’ve also focused on scent. Our multivitamins include omega-3 vegan algal oil which is great for its heart supporting benefits, but it also has a seaside aroma that some customers did not love. We’re committed to using nutrients in their ideal forms, no compromises, but also think taking your multivitamins should be fun so we added a minty tab (or lemon for our prenatal) infused with essential oil.”


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