FMCG sales from eCommerce in India to touch $4 billion by 2022: Nielsen E-Trak Index

Sales of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the eCommerce channel, which presently contributes 2% to the current FMCG market, is set to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 44% to $4 billion by 2022, says an E-Trak Index launched recently by Nielsen India. The new introduced index has been created using aggregated ePOS (electronic point of sale) data from cooperating eCommerce players and data science backed estimation for non-cooperating eCommerce players in India.

Prasun Basu, South Asia Zone President, Nielsen Global Connect, said, “In this rapidly evolving world of commerce, India’s FMCG industry is now making its presence felt in the eComm channel - appealing to consumers’ need for convenience, and in sync with increasing smartphone and internet penetration. The E-Trak index is aimed at giving a truly complete picture of the changing marketplace. The index will measure FMCG consumer offtake in the eComm space while marrying this with trends seen in modern and traditional trade to get a read on omni-channel in the country,” he said.

Courtesy: Nielsen E-Trak Index

The E-Trak Index is a unique measurement solution that tracks the FMCG eComm industry in India. As per a company statement, the index adds a crucial element to the retail measurement services that Nielsen provides by adding a view of the FMCG eComm space for all India metros. The data comprises monthly read for total FMCG, super-categories, category level for about 20 categories and for 11 categories at a top manufacturer level. Manufacturers and marketers get data, information and insights that can be further used to hone their eComm channel sales strategy to help shape a smarter market.

“While the foundation is taking shape, eComm’s dynamic nature has made it a disruptor in the marketplace,” said Sharang Pant, head-retail measurement services and retailer vertical - South Asia, Nielsen Global Connect. eComm has seen a transformative journey and is now a $1.2 billion industry growing from 0.5% contribution in 2016 to a 2% contribution in 2019. It is now slated to be 5% in 2022.

According to Pant, this is in half the time that brick and mortar retail took to evolve. “That said, these channels are not cannibalising each other and all continue to grow with eComm outpacing modern trade and traditional trade. The view that Nielsen presents on understanding channel, category and consumer trends will directly help players understand the right strategy in terms of assortment, pricing and positioning to win with the evolving consumer,” he said.

Given the significance of the channel from both a current as well as future perspective, Nielsen has built a unique state of the art hybrid model for estimating this dynamic and growing channel. “The methodology involves leveraging data from key collaborating etailers in the FMCG space. We then use crowd sourced data coupled with machine learning techniques from a panel of 200K+ consumers to estimate the eCcommerce sales for FMCG products,” said Nitya Bhalla, head - data science - South Asia, Nielsen Global Connect.

Courtesy: Nielsen E-Trak Index

Insights from the E-Trak Index reveal that metros are leading the eComm FMCG race with a 6% contribution from the channel to total FMCG sales. Amongst these, foods is the biggest contributor with 44% followed byt personal care (40%) and household care (13%). Narrowing in on the value contribution of eComm to metro sales categories with the channel, diapers contribute 26% to the sales; followed by skin creams (12%) and shampoo (10%).
(The writer is a Mumbai-based independent business journalist and has extensively covered diversified consumer businesses over the last two decades. He can be reached at hello@ashishktiwari.com)

Godrej Consumer sees gradual recovery in FMCG sector over coming quarters

This story first appeared in The Free Press Journal on Thursday, November 7, 2019.

The fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry in India, according to Godrej Consumer Products, is hopeful of a gradual recovery over the coming quarters.

The Godrej group company has reported 7% volume growth in India business for the July to September quarter of fiscal 2019-20.

Vivek Gambhir, managing director and chief executive officer, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL), said, the 7% volume growth was its highest in the last five quarters and was broad based across categories. “We have seen a sequential pick up in volume every quarter, for the last few quarters.

Picture Courtesy: www.godrejcp.com

The growth was led by new product launches, strong marketing campaigns and consumer offers. Our expectation is to ride on the gradual recovery that we see in India and improve our volume growth momentum,” he said during an earnings call on Wednesday.

To achieve this, the company will be intensifying its thrust on innovation and new product launches. In the pipeline are a slew of disruptive offerings including the Good Night Gold Flash, which it claims to be its biggest innovation in the category over the last decade. Another offering is HIT rat glue pad that’s available only in a select few markets at present.

GCPL has also entered the anti-mosquito racquet space under its HIT brand. This product category has been largely dominated by Chinese products and private labels thus far. The company is looking to disrupt this segment with a branded offering via the e-commerce distribution channel.

At Rs 399 a piece, the pricing of this product however is significantly higher compared to what’s already available in the market at present. Abneesh Roy, executive vice president - institutional equities (research), Edelweiss Securities noted that since the product is only available through e-commerce the company may need to look at physical retail stores going forward.

In fact, GCPL is planning to launch the anti mosquito racquet in modern trade and based on the market response will extend it to premium general trade and other outlets in the next phase of its distribution strategy.

“We are quite happy with the initial success and the plan is to scale up across other channels as well. As for pricing is concerned, this is a product with a much longer warranty and is much superior versus some of the unbranded and private labels that you’d see (in the market).

Our hope is that with the kind of trust and equity HIT commands in the market, we should be able to sustain the premium pricing (Rs 399) of the product,” said Gambhir.

Among other new products to be launched will be in the hair colour space including the relaunch of Expert Creme hair colour and Godrej Anoop Ayurvedic anti hairfall oil through the e-commerce channel. This apart, a bunch of new offerings are in experimental stage and will either be launched on e-commerce or sold through modern trade channels.

(The writer is an independent business journalist and can be reached at ashishktiwari.1976@gmail.com)