British consumer healthcare products maker Reckitt Benckiser (RB) will hyper-target consumers on ecommerce in India and China, the company’s global president (hygiene and home) Rob de Groot said in a post earnings call.
“In India, we have seen 10x growth in e-commerce over the past three years. Today’s technology really gives you that possibility that you can target very dedicated parts of the population,” he said. The UK-based company has increased its investments in e-commerce and digital by three times between 2017 and 2019.
While grocery and daily essentials are smaller than sales of mobile phones, electronics and fashion online, the sector is growing rapidly fuelled by aggression of e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Big Basket and Grofers.
E-commerce contributes close to 2% of the country’s Rs 3 lakh crore fast-moving consumer goods business, up from 0.4% in 2016, and is almost entirely accounted for by the urban markets.
The segment’s share is expected to widen to 11% by 2030, riding on a rapidly growing internet economy, according to researcher Nielsen. The maker of Dettol antiseptic, Vanish stain remover and Airwick air freshener attributed the stepup in online sales to “the rise of the middle class. Once disposable income goes up, categories develop”, Groot said during the call.
“In India, one of our top markets, you can see the penetration potential of the categories of the future. This potential is coming towards us, rather than we going out to hunt that business,” he said during the call.
“The rules of fast-moving consumer goods have changed. In the past, it was about putting big sales forces together and going to the stores, but now the digital technology, both at the consumer communication part as well as the transaction part from a channel perspective, opens up completely new opportunities,” Groot said.
“Our world around is disrupting in terms of digital — as people, we are shopping differently, we are engaging new brands differently. We know that, everyone knows that. But knowing that and doing something about it is quite different,” said Rakesh Kapoor, outgoing CEO of the company.
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