Baba Ramdev Led Patanjali Looks To Drive Sales With Ecommerce Help

Haridwar-headquartered Patanjali Ayurved has officially launched its ecommerce operations. As part of the move, which is aimed at reaching more customers, the Baba Ramdev-led FMCG company has entered into strategic partnerships with eight ecommerce firms, including Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm Mall, Bigbasket, Netmeds, Grofers and Gurugram-based 1mg.

The announcement was made today by Patanjali’s Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna during a press conference in New Delhi.

Commenting on the development, Manish Tiwary, VP Category Management at Amazon India said, “We are thrilled to partner with Patanjali and enable easy access of their products to customers across the country. We are committed to work together with Indian-grown brands with the aim to give customers unique products combined with a delightful online shopping experience.”

Hari Menon, CEO of Bigbasket added, “The fact that Patanjali products are used by a majority across India is a huge advantage. This coupled with our reach across 6 million+ consumers across the country and our exclusive offering of 90-minute delivery will prove to be a win-win situation for both brands. In addition to our B2C (customer) business, we are proud that Patanjali is now also catering to our B2B (Institutional & HORECA) business. Bigbasketeers can look forward to another exciting range of products from us. Patanjali has become a brand to reckon today and we are happy to be associated with them.”

In addition to being available on partner sites, the products will henceforth be sold on Patanjali’s own online marketplace patanjaliayurved.net, which has been in the test phase since December 2017.

Some of the company’s products are already available on different ecommerce platforms through various sellers.

As part of the development, 1mg has been recognised as the official partner for the range of Patanjali’s Divya Pharmacy products. Additionally, the digital healthcare startup has created a custom online store for Patanjali products on its website as well as mobile application.

Speaking about the collaboration with Patanjali, Prashant Tandon, Founder and CEO at 1mg, said, “Our mission is to provide the consumers with the best information, products and services for them to live healthier and better. As India’s largest eHealth platform, we believe a strategic partnership with Patanjali creates a strong alliance to further the access and awareness of quality Ayurveda products and information.”

“Given the tremendous potential in Ayurveda, and Patanjali’s leadership in making this a part of lifestyle and wellness for a lot of people in India, we are really excited to join the Patanjali family as a digital partner and look forward to growing this category together,” he added.

According to the terms of these partnerships, Patanjali will also undertake exclusive promotions of its FMCG and Divya Pharmacy range of products in a bid to attract more online customers.

How Patanjali Ayurved Clocked $1.6 Bn (INR 10,561 Cr) In Revenues

Founded in 2006, Patanjali Ayurved is an FMCG company that has products across 50 categories such as pantry staples, groceries, nutrition, skin care and toiletries, with haircare and oral care products being the best sellers. During the fiscal year ending in March 2017, the Haridwar-headquartered company reported revenues upwards of $1.6 Bn (INR 10,561 Cr).

Of this, sales of Patanjali’s Keshkanti shampoo accounted for more than $128.7 Mn (INR 825 Cr), while its toothpaste contributed around $146.7 Mn (INR 940 Cr) in sales.

At present, Patanjali has an annual production capacity of $7.8 Mn (INR 50,000 Cr), claimed Baba Ramdev.

Compared to that, the Ayurveda company clocked nearly $750 Mn (INR 5,000) revenues in FY16. In doing so, it overtook eight-decades-old Colgate in India.

As claimed by Baba Ramdev during the press conference today, Patanjali has created an ecosystem that is capable of settling up to 1 Mn orders every day. The latest move to launch its own ecommerce operations is reportedly aimed at increasing online sales to around 15% of the company’s total sales.

Ramdev added, “Online mechanism aims to provide convenient and efficient option along with an extension of the traditional retail market. Online sales crossed $1.5 Mn (INR 10 Cr) mark during December itself, which is the highest online sales by any FMCG brand in a month.”

The ultimate goal is to build Patanjali into the number one fast-moving consumer goods company in India as well as other countries over the next 10 years, revealed Ramdev.

When asked if there are any plans to take the company public, the founder of Patanjali Ayurved said, “We will not list Patanjali in Mumbai, we will list Patanjali in people’s hearts. You will see it as a non-profit organisation in the future where each rupee will be used for India.”

Apart from the FMCG segment, Patanjali has a presence in India’s healthcare and education sectors as well. In January 2016, the FMCG company partnered with Pluss, an on-demand medicine and healthcare products delivery service to sell Patanjali products through the Pluss App across Delhi/NCR.

In May 2016, it was reported that Baba Ramdev was lining up an online platform (Chikitsalaya) for ayurvedic consultation and treatment. Most recently, in December 2017, the company also announced plans to foray into solar equipment manufacturing.

Despite clocking huge revenue, Patanjali has repeatedly been in the news for allegedly selling adulterated products. The controversy reached its peak last year, when several of the company’s products failed to pass quality tests.

Indian FMCG Market: $103.7 Bn Behemoth In The Making

As per a report by IBEF, the Indian FMCG market is expected to touch $103.7 Bn by 2020 from the current $49 Bn, growing at a CAGR of 20.6 %.

Last year, in September, another Indian FMCG major Dabur partnered up with Amazon India for an online Ayurveda marketplace. The e-marketplace is currently hosted by Amazon India and the content is developed by Dabur India.

As reported at the time, the ayurvedic marketplace would house all ayurvedic brands and products in India, including the products of Dabur’s competitors like Patanjali and Himalaya, etc.

By strengthening its online presence through partnerships with big ecommerce players like Amazon, Flipkart, Bigbasket and 1mg, Baba Ramdev led Patanjali is looking to further increase its revenues, so as to get ahead of rivals in the FMCG space.

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