ITC, Dabur, Marico, Bisleri board e-commerce bus to augment sales

FMCG firms are jumping on to the e-commerce bandwagon to retail their products. While Marico is putting in place plans to retail niche brands through e-commerce, Dabur is broad-basing its offerings through the platform by including personal care products and beverages by the end of this year. At present, Dabur sells only healthcare brands online.

Similarly, Bisleri International is gearing up to foray into the space in 2015 while ITC Foods is planning to sell its premium offerings ‘Dark Fantasy’, ‘Farmlite’ and ‘Kitchens of India’ through several online channels in the next few months. Currently, ITC Foods sells its premium brands only on its website: www.kitchensofindiashopping .com.

On the company's plans, Ramesh Chauhan, chairman of Bisleri International, said,'' We are putting in place plans to sell brands on the web by 2015. The work is in progress. Recognising the significance of e-commerce in our lives now, we plan to foray into this mode of selling.”

According to a recent report by KPMG and Internet & Mobile Association of India, the e-commerce industry was in its infancy for the better part of the previous decade. “However, in last three years, the industry has witnessed incredible growth of 150%, increasing from $3.8 billion (R19,249 crore) in 2009 to $9.5 billion (R47,349 crores) in 2012. It is estimated the e-commerce industry will contribute around 4 %to GDP by 2020,” points out the survey.

On the rationale behind broad-basing its offerings online, Sunil Duggal, CEO of Dabur India, said, "Some of our products are not readily available in all retail outlets across the country. We want to rectify this by selling our brands on the web by the end of 2014.”

In addition to its e-commerce activity, Marico is setting up e-clinics to facilitate consumer engagement.

Sameer Satpathy, executive vice-president & buisness head, Marico, said the company's core strategy is to sell its niche brands, Parachute Advansed, Saffola Masala Oats and Setwet, on the web and build these brands through consumer engagement programmes on social media platforms.

''We will be working with multiple partners across many categoriesfor this purpose. We have recently launched Parachute Advansed e -clinics to connect with consumers," he added. At present, Marico sells select brands on portals like Flipkart and Amazon.

After selling niche brands on its website, ITC is getting ready to sell its products via other websites also. ''Today, consumers are on the web, So we want to be present there. Worldwide, we are selling our Kitchens Of India brands on Amazon.com,” said Chitranjan Dar, CEO, ITC Foods.