By Tanya Agarwal
Baba Ramdev led Ayurvedic brand Patanjali has come up with yet another weapon to fight its multinational competitors. The Haridwar based company is likely to partner with eight leading retailers and aggregators which, as forecasted, will give a huge boost to its online sales. Its ‘swadeshi’ range of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) products may be available on major e-commerce websites. The list of big names includes – Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm Mall, 1MG, Bigbasket, Grofers, Shopclues and Snapdeal, among others.
These partnerships with e-tailers will be in addition to its own portal patanjaliayurved.net, where the company is selling its products online. Other than that, the company was already selling its products on some websites. However, through this step, the company plans to systematically place its products online and thus, capture a larger market share.
Expanding ventures, segments and profits
A 2017 Nirmal Bang report revealed that the brand had already reached nearly 53% households in personal care and 26% in food products, up by nearly 100% from a year ago.
Recently, Patanjali had forayed into kids and adult diapers and affordable sanitary napkins segments. Last month, it had also announced that it plans to venture into solar equipment manufacturing. Besides the FMCG segment, Patanjali Ayurved is present in other sectors such as education and healthcare. In 2016-17, it had crossed a turnover of Rs 10,500 crore and aims a two-fold growth this fiscal.
The company has been appreciated for its strong distribution system. Carrying the legacy forward, Patanjali found a way to address the woes of its online customers who had to face the customary ‘Out of Stock’ message and to rope in newer customers. On 5 January 2018, The official spokesperson hinted at the path-breaking news through his Twitter post that read, “Patanjali Ayurveda has started working on a massive online push. The announcement of an agreement with world’s largest e-commerce companies will happen soon. A new chapter of online shopping of Patanjali products from many portals will begin soon.”
Official word on company expansion
Patanjali spokesperson S K Tijarawala, in his statement, said, “Now, we will have an organised and systematic agreement with the players to place our all product online, so that it could reach to customers to the endpoint.”
Patanjali, according to sources, is also organising a function for the representatives of all the sites it is partnering with. The function is scheduled for Tuesday, 16 January 2018 and is and will be attended by Baba Ramdev and Managing Director (MD) Acharya Balkrishna.
S K Tijarawala said, “This will change the scenario of whole FMCG trade through online. The retailers and aggregators would share the dais. They are coming and will be making the announcement together that they will be working with brand Patanjali.” He added that this arrangement will help Patanjali spread on a global level. This would, in turn, boost the returns of the company.
Baba Ramdev’s dream for Patanjali
The Ayurveda Company had earlier tried to tweak its sales in the summer of 2017. It, then, had departed from its existing branded franchise it had been relying on right from its inception. It aimed at getting its presence felt by the nation. The strategy to achieve the same was synonymous to that of bigger FMCG Companies.
According to a Business Standard report from July 2017, Patanjali aims to increase its number of distributors from 5,000 to 25,000 by 2019. The move was seen to be crucial to meet Ramdev’s ambitious target of annual sales of Rs. 1 lakh crore by 2020. With yet another attempt to change the FMCG products market, Patanjali is only moving closer to the dreams of Baba Ramdev.
At the very least, the move is sure to help Patanjali carve out a bigger market share. The company currently ranks No. 7 in the FMCG space and meets its turnover target of Rs 20,000 crore for this fiscal year, a twofold growth year-on-year.
Featured Image Credits: Wikimedia
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