Oriflame turns to online sales in India to cut costs

Hyderabad, Apr 25 (PTI) Aiming to overcome logistics and infrastructure challenge, Swedish direct selling firm Oriflame plans to push more sales through the online platform.
    
The company, whose products are currently available in 1,300 cities with 12 offices across India in partnership with 71 courier services, envisages its website to become a virtual office in due course of time.
    
"Logistics and infrastructure has been a challenge for us since India is a big country in terms of its size. So our concern this year is on how to streamline the operational costs as we try to penetrate deeper and expand our reach," Oriflame Cosmetics Regional Director (South Asia) Fredrik Widell told PTI.
    
Oriflame, which has a global turnover of 1.3 billion Euro, has recently started selling its products in India through its website and plans to increase the use of the platform in future.
    
"We are increasingly shifting to online in terms of selling our products. So our website would serve as a virtual office for our customers to book orders," he said.
    
In the last few years, Widell said that the company has launched various initiatives, including selling through phones and SMSes, as part of its effort to cut down the cost.
    
"While these would help us in cutting down our cost, it will also enhance our reach and distribution in the country," he said, but did not quantify by how much the initiative would help in reducing the company's operational costs.
    
In order to enhance sales in India, which is currently the company's fifth biggest global market, Oriflame is looking at working with several celebrities for its promotion.
    
It has recently announced its tie up with designer Rohit Bal for bringing out a new range of ladies' bags.
    
Asked if it will also come up with television commercial (TVC), like rival Amway, which recently came out with its first TVC in India, Oriflame board member Alexander af Jochnick said the firm may consider it in three years' time.
    
"The focus at present is to enhance the distribution channels and educating the masses about our products in India. As the Indian market grows for us, we will consider launching a TVC within the next three years," he said.
    
Oriflame has already started its television commercial in Russia, which is its largest market currently.
    
"India has the potential to become the biggest market over the next few years. We have tripled our business in the last three years and we hope to continue doing so," Widell said, without disclosing details.