Amway bullish on digital; sees online sales staying at 80-85% post-Covid

The company's online business which was at 33% in February hit 90% during the lockdown

Direct selling major Amway India remained bullish that its digitally focused strategy will help regain business very close to the pre-Covid level by July and its online share of sales would continue to remain high at 80 -85 per cent.

The company's online business which was at 33 per cent in February hit 90 per cent during the lockdown but Amway does not foresee it will get back to pre-covid level in the future.

"We expect online sales will continue to contribute 80-85 per cent to the overall sales," Amway India CEO Anshu Budhraja said.

All training and meetings with the direct sellers have been shifted online and the company has conducted over 3,041 online training programmes engaging over 4 lakh Amway Direct Sellers since the lockdown, he said.

Riding on the spurt in demand for certain product categories like immunity, hygiene and health, he hoped to achieve 80-90 per cent level of business of pre-lockdown by July 2020.

The direct selling FMCG company has tied up with ITC to distribute juices through its channel last month and the city-based FMCG conglomerate hinted to distribute more products in the heath segment through this agreement.

Amway said it witnessed excellent traction in certain categories during the lockdown and unlock 1 period, and saw a spike in the sale of immunity supporting SKUs (stock keeping units) by almost three times, including the herbal range supporting immunity and respiratory health.

Pre-empting rise in demand of immunity and hygiene products, the direct selling major is gearing up to increase the production of these SKUs by four times in the coming months and maintain the product availability at 95 per cent, Budhraja said.

"We have identified around 30 SKUs, which include Nutrilite Tulsi, Nutrilite Ashwagandha, Nutrilite Natural C in the immunity space and others in the personal hygiene and home care categories," he said.

The Indian arm of the US-based company said the manufacturing facility at Dindigul in Tamil Nadu has sufficient capacity to manage the forecast demand. Additionally, Amway also enhanced manufacturing capacity at contract partners to ensure adequate supply.