New Delhi: Ecommerce market that was dominated by elections, books and fashion, has, of late seen a dramatic rise in demand for daily-use products like deodorants, shampoo, makeup and even of articles like toilet cleaners.
Smaller Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies that have limited resources are mainly responsibly for this growth. Taking a leaf out of their success even larger brands are paving their way in so that they don't miss out on any opportunity.
A spokesperson of Amazon India said, “Categories such as skincare, baby nursing, make-up, deodorants and grooming products have grown by more than five times in the past year.”
This growth is mostly powered by companies without much distribution muscle, such as Khadi, Patanjali, Vini Cosmetics, Adjavis, Park Avenue and TTK. "Customers are now looking for unique brands that are sulphate and paraben-free like Indulekha, Iba Halal Care, Vedantika Herbals, Prakriti Herbals, Vaadi Herbals, etc," the spokesperson said.
Snapdeal expects the growth to be around 50 times in the coming three years. While other ecommerce majors such as Flipkart and eBay, too, are selling hair oil, shampoos and soaps.
The ecommerce site is working directly with most of the FMCG players in the market including but not limited to HUL, P&G, ITCBSE -0.31 %, R&B, L'Oreal, Godrej.
It sells close to 1,00,000 products in the category of which segments such as baby care products, sexual wellness, Cosmetics and skin care and health supplements are the most popular ones.
According to market gurus, Ecommerce of FMCG globally will increase 47% to $53 billion by 2016, up from $36 billion in 2014.
It also forecasted that ecommerce will account for 5.2% of global FMCG sales by 2016, up from 3.7%, and that Asia will be the next major growth market.
Google recently got several FMCG companies including Hindustan Unilever, Lakme, Paris India, Nivea, P&G, Reckitt & Benckiser and Johnson & Johnson to sample their products to a large set of customers during Google's Great Online Shopping Festival.
