Durex Condoms unleashes an online store, is online retail for adult products getting Sexier?

Around 20 lakh Google searches are made every month on adult products. In terms of market size, the Indian adult product market was between the range of Rs 1,200-1,500 Cr approx last year and is expected to reach a range of Rs 2,450 Cr in 2016 and Rs 8,700 Cr by 2020, which not only shows the market opportunity in this space but also how the demand for these products is growing in the country.

Continuing the trend of Online retail, condom manufacturer Durex has ventured into online space. It has launched an online portal, Durex India for selling its products in the country. Along with this, Durex has also partnered with Healthkart to offer its products on their store.

In past one year, Indian online retail market has seen a number of startups including That’spersonal, Shycart, Kaamastra, IMbesharam that have come up to cash upon market opportunity in this Niche category, which provide an idea about how the market for ‘Sex’ products will grow exponentially in the coming time.

Now it appears that even the producers of adult products don’t want to stay away from the new techy and the online genre, as now they too have started coming out with strategies to reach them. Recently, Skore condoms launched their app a few weeks back and now with Durex coming online, the space is getting tougher and indeed sexier!

But there still remains a question, Why would people buy online? While talking to a few people we concluded the following two factors that have made online shopping for adult products on the rise in India.

Firstly, the “Shy factor” which is always there when someone has to make the purchase from a physical outlet, plus though the market size is huge but still there are “few physical outlets” available and it often happens that the products are not readily available, thus, less variety for the buyer and also sometimes the customers end up paying higher costs.

Secondly, though moving on the lines of west there are various types of ‘Sex’ products that have been made available in the country but still, lack of knowledge about their use and availability act as a barrier while buying these products. Making people aware of the variety and usage of these products is a big time issue, thus an online store as a medium not only makes one aware about the availability of these products but, also provides them with additional knowledge too.

Stores like That’spersonal, Shycart and even the recently launched Durex India solve the problem of lack of knowledge pretty well. Apart from displaying the products for sale, these websites, actually even make people aware of usage, and show additional information about it.

Talking about Durex India’s latest online store, One can browse, explore and buy various products including condoms, and go through the guide which contains textual, graphical and visual content. So, overall DurexIndia has gathered all information on sex, related fantasies and educational stuff around it, and of course the products too.

Obviously opportunity comes with Challenges

Gaining traction and reaching new customers is a big challenge for online retailers dealing in this space, in addition to this, educating customers and explaining about such products  in India is  yet another challenge as a lot of education has to be provided beforehand.

Apart from this, logistics and managing a safe and secure delivery is yet another challenge. Logistics in a category like this plays a huge role. Obviously, no one wants that people should know what he/she has bought; as in case of a typical delivery box of online retail company usually products are packed under the company’s cover and as names of adult product websites are identical to what they are selling, thus, the seller has to take good care while delivering these products. Type of product information is available on the package. Further, few online retailers to take care of this , have even got a different registered name which isn’t identical with the web-stores name.

Also, no one would want their family members to know what they have ordered, as they will have to face embarrassment in case the product has been delivered in their absence. So, additional care has to be taken at that point of time.

Overall, people are becoming aware and mature about adult products which will surely help online retailers in this domain. Also it would be interesting to watch how retailers cope up with the growing competition and move towards customer satisfaction. Profitability is also one of the major challenge for whole ecommerce industry. Though this category, we believe, has more margins, lets see how things shape up for the online adult market.

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