Internet to drive sales by 2020

Nearly two-thirds of the total $17 billion sales of beauty and hygiene products in the FMCG sector would be influenced by the internet by 2020 as more and more users get online to research in this category, according to a joint report by Google and Bains & Co.

The report, which captures the growing influence of the Internet on beauty and hygiene pro-ducts, also projects 130 million Indians will shop online for B&H products by 2020 representing 20 per cent of total sales estimated to be $3 billion.

While the total influence of Internet will im-pact $35 billion worth of FMCG sales, which is one-third of total sales, in India, beauty and hygiene will see twice the impact because of the internetcentric users according to the report.

“Beauty and hygiene related searches form the third largest vertical for shopping related searches on Google, behind apparels & accessories and mobile phones.

Speaking about the key findings of the report, Vikas Agnihotri, industry director, Google India, said, “It is clear that FMCG companies in India need to start thinking of digital as a more strategic medium and chart out a digital growth path for their products.”