Consumers are now buying staples across multiple channels
New Delhi: Urban consumers are shopping for daily essentials across multiple channels including visiting their neighbouring stores and ordering shampoo and chips on quick commerce platforms helping the share of such “omni-channel” households double over the last two years, researcher Kantar said. The move is shift from several years ago, when consumers preferred one mode of shopping—with general trade dominating consumer preference.
However, the market has since proliferated with online commerce making it convenient for consumers to buy daily staples. More recently, quick commerce has also emerged as an alternative with shoppers placing orders for ketchups, body wash and toothpaste on such platforms.
Kantar defines an omni-channel household as one that shops across channels such as general trade, modern trade as well as e-commerce. Omni-channel households grew from 3.08% of the 105 million households the market researcher tracked in May 2021 to 6.45% of the 112 million households tracked in the 12 months ended 31 May 2023.
To be sure, general trade remains the predominant shopping channel in India given both its density in the country like India as well as the convenience attached to the format. FMCG penetration in general trade stood at 99.9% during the 12 months ended May 2023. Meanwhile, household penetration for modern trade stood at 29.7% for fast moving consumer goods and that of e-commerce at 9.6%. Kantar defines household penetration as the number of times a given set of shoppers buy a particular category or brand, or in this case, shop across channels in a given period of time—typically one year.
Companies have been observing the consumer shift too with several acknowledging that consumers are now buying across platforms. This means companies have stepped up inventory and marketing spends across online and offline channels.
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