L'Oreal mulling bigger e-commerce play in India

The move comes as online sales in categories such as make-up grow quickly for the French major

The world’s largest beauty & cosmetics company, L’Oreal, is looking to expand its e-commerce play in India as categories such as personal care and grooming show greater traction online.

Make-up brands such as Maybelline already give L’Oreal close to three per cent of its sales from the online medium. Flagship L’Oreal Professional’s make-up range, on the other hand, gives the Indian unit of the French major almost two per cent of its sales from e-commerce, while male grooming products such as Garnier For Men give over a per cent of its sales from e-commerce.

In a conversation with Business Standard, L’Oreal’s Director of Consumer Products Satyaki Ghosh said the company was open to the prospect of setting up its e-store if online sales continued growing the way it was.

“Nothing is out of consideration at this stage. We are watching this space closely. We are considering the option (of setting up an e-shop). It is not out of limit, though we have not done work on it yet,” Ghosh said.

Currently, L’Oreal works with e-commerce platforms such as Jabong, Myntra, Nykaa and Amazon, among others, to push online sales for its brands. Experts say that as e-commerce becomes a bigger channel for consumer goods companies, newer business models are expected to emerge, including brand websites that provide the option to shop online, click and mortar, etc.

In a bid to tap the growing sea of men and women who are shopping or browsing online, L’Oreal is already putting its luxury products and premium cosmetics (called active cosmetics by the company) on e-commerce platforms. This is in addition to popular consumer goods such as Garnier, L’Oreal Professional and Maybelline, which have already migrated online.

Building the buzz.

Ghosh says the company will increase pre-launch activities on digital for key products in an endeavour to improve buzz.

“Stuff where you are exclusive to e-commerce for the first seven-ten days before taking it offline is something that many players are trying including us. We will increase it, since that creates a lot of excitement,” he says.

In the run-up to Valentine’s Day last month, L’Oreal, said Ghosh citing an example of the above, promoted special giftboxes containing make-up products only on e-commerce portals, positioned as an ideal gifting option for women. While he did not reveal the exact sales from this effort, he said the buzz from this activity prompted offline trade partners such as Shopper’s Stop and Lifestyle to also ask for the giftboxes to be stocked at their department stores.  

Experts say that companies will have to increasingly find such meeting points between online and offline to ensure brick and mortar stores don’t feel left out as e-commerce grows.

A recent Bain-Google study says that almost Rs 30,000 crore or five per cent of total FMCG sales in India will come from e-commerce by 2020. This will be led by categories such as male grooming, beauty, personal care and infant care.