New Delhi: The Indianmarket has massivepotential and can be thesource of many future

innovations, British FMCG majorRB’s global CEO Laxman Narasim-han said on Wednesday. The com-pany expects that the innovationswill unleash the potential of theconsumption class, he said whileaddressing a session at the CIINational FMCG Summit.

“I am deeply optimistic that a lot ofthe future innovation will come fromIndia. I have my eyes out for that,”Narasimhan said in his virtual add-ress, adding that “the potential ofIndia is massive”. — PTI

‘Indian Market hasMassive Potential’

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Brands & Companies

and entertainmentmay resume only ayear from now, ac-cording to the stu-dy. Brand loyaltyhas taken a beatingand product availa-bility and competi-tive pricing are mo-re important, withconsumers no long-er going the extramile for their favou-rite brand. Thebulk of shopping isdriven by disco-

unts, with 57% of the people dela-ying purchases or buying onlywhen offered rebates. This is asharp jump from less than 40%waiting for deals during pre-Co-vid-19 period. “The larger senti-ment is that of being frugal andwilling to wait for an opportune ti-me to get a good deal,” said Mehta.

Sagar.Malviya@timesgroup.com

Mumbai: Almost three-fourthsof India’s urban population hasbeen economically impacted byCovid-19 and about half are finan-cially worse off than they werelast year, according to a study byKantar.

While the general sentiment islargely about fear anduncertainty, two-thirds ofIndians seem cynical about the si-tuation improving, the Britishmarket research company said inits latest report, ‘The New IndianConsumer,’ which surveyed 10,000urban consumers across 15 Indi-an states.

“Most consumers have becomecautious of what they spend onand actively look out for deals anddiscounts while making any pur-chases. However, they are willingto pay a premium for productsthat provide them convenienceand makes lives easier,” saidHemant Mehta, chief strategy of-ficer, South Asia, at Kantar.

The report comes as consumercompanies across groceries, elec-tronics, smartphones and auto-mobiles expect strong growth inthe current quarter. Companiesestimate these segments willgrow at 10% and more in theMarch quarter, helped by a low ba-se, a revival in rural growth andincreased spending on hygiene,immunity and personal mobility.

“There was a lot of pent-updemand, which is now playingout. Also, unplanned savingsfrom entertainment and leisureactivities or eating out are now be-ing used to purchase big-ticketitems,” added Mehta.

Sustained out-of-home activities

‘Covid Hit About 3 Out of 4Urban Indians Financially’

Gloomy Times

52% say they are financially worse off than last year

Two-thirds cynical about if situation will get better at all

East and South seem more worried about situation

Seek security in job more than growth

Only safe investments, if at all

Spending only when necessary

Purchases only on discount

KEY CHANGES IN BEHAVIOUR

There is fear and uncertainty about future, says study by Kantar

Mostconsumershave becomecautious ofwhat theyspend on andlook out fordeals anddiscountswhile makingpurchases

the customer’s car-buying journeywith a bouquet of financing options.

Kenichi Ayukawa, CEO, MarutiSuzuki India, said, “Under theSmart Finance platform, currentlyhosted on the NEXA website, we ha-ve partnered with several popular fi-nanciers to provide custom-curatedpersonalised loan offers for our cus-tomers. This digital service offerseasy financing options and is comp-letely transparent at each stage ofthe loan process. Among other ad-vantages, the customer gets to cus-tomise the EMI by choosing the loantenure and interest rate and select a

preferred down-payment scheme.”

CO TO HIKE PRICES FROM JANMaruti Suzuki India on Wednesdaysaid it will increase prices of its vehi-cles from January to offset the adver-se impact of rising input costs. Overthe past year, cost of the company’svehicles has been impacted adverse-ly due to increase in various inputcosts, it said in a regulatory filing.

Customer can also compare multi-ple scenarios for the car loan andmake an informed choice of loanpartner, loan tenure on the Smart Fi-nance platform.

“As much as 57% of all car buyersresearch online for financing solu-tions after deciding to purchase a ve-hicle. When they go out of our sy-stem to research finance options,the conversion process slows down.At times, customers change theirmind about the type of vehicle theywant to buy,” said Shashank Srivas-tava, executive director (marketingand sales) at Maruti Suzuki, addingthe new platform would enable thecompany to increase customer sa-tisfaction and retention. Nearly80% of customers at Maruti Suzukiavail of financing solutions while

purchasing a vehicle.Maruti Suzuki has currently part-

nered with eight financiers - HDFCBank, Yes Bank, ICCI Bank, Indu-sInd Bank, Cholamandalam Finan-ce, AU Small Finance Bank, Ma-hindra Finance and Kotak Mahind-ra Prime - for the service. Subsequ-ently, the company will onboardnine additional financiers.

The pilot for Smart Finance wascarried out in Gurugram and feed-back was gathered from the custo-mers to improve the user interfaceto provide a seamless and delightfulcustomer experience.

Maruti Launches Online Car Finance Service to Boost SalesOur Bureau & Agencies

New Delhi: India’s largest carma-ker Maruti Suzuki Wednesday laun-ched an online end-to-end real-timecar finance service facility — forNEXA customers in 30 cities acrossthe country to boost sales.

The platform called “Smart Finan-ce” will eventually include more fi-nanciers and the finance service faci-lity will be extended to all customersacross its channels nationally nextyear. Through the service, Maruti Su-zuki aims to simplify and digitalise

section of digitisation and sustai-nable energy and its transforma-tional impact, and accelerated newpossibilities for the country in apost-Covid-19 world.

“When it comes to the stock mar-ket – assuming a conservative viewand taking a developed nation’s 30-year stock market CAGR of 9% –the Indian market indexes would

have increased by a factor of 13 ti-mes, putting the Sensex in therange of 600,000. Most likely, thisindex will be in an order of highermagnitude, given India’s maingrowth is still ahead of it. I wouldalso expect that by 2050, India wo-uld have created several of its owntrillion-dollar value companies,”Adani said. The combination of so-

lar and wind energy storage alongwith support from digitisation willtransform the energy market.

“The marginal cost of electricitywill continue to drop sharply as therenewable energy boom accelera-tes... and India will be the least ex-pensive producer of renewableenergy,” he said. Adani said thepandemic has accelerated growthin some segments and India isstrongly positioned to take advanta-ge of two structural global changesthat are expected to happen. First,the pandemic has highlighted thathyper-efficient supply chains arealso hyper-fragile, making a casefor more flexibility in sourcing andlocalisation to support individualmarkets. The second aspect thatcan benefit India is the accelera-tion in digital technology to mana-ge operations remotely, which me-ans there will be a structural shiftbetween global locations where pe-ople need to be and locations whereoperations need to be executed.

‘India may Have Several Tr-$ Cos by 2050’Our Bureau

Mumbai | New Delhi: BillionaireGautam Adani sees India creating“several of its own trillion-dollarvalue companies” by 2050, drivenby technology and the scale of op-portunities.

India will also emerge as the leastexpensive producer of renewableenergy by then, the head of theAdani Group said on Wednesday.

“India is today at a dramatic in-flection point. I believe that overthe next few decades, India will ha-ve firmly positioned itself as thegreatest opportunity of the 21stcentury and become even strongeryear 2050 onwards,” Adani said atthe TiE Global conference.

He said India may face challengesbut the scale of opportunity will re-main a key driver. Adani said threefactors will define India over thenext three decades – favourablemacroeconomic aspects, the inter-

Country to also emerge as least expensive producer of renewable energy by then: Gautam Adani

ADANISPEAKIndia may face challenges but scale of opportunity to remain a key driver

Solar & wind energy storage, digitisation support to transform energy mkt

The marginal cost of electricity will

continue to drop sharply as the renewable energy boom accelerates...and India will be the least expensive producer of renewable energy

GAUTAM ADANIHead, Adani Group

India unit of the British consumergoods giant, which makes Dettolhandwash and Lizol and Harpicdisinfectant cleaners, saw 50%growth in its e-commerce channelover the previous year in the Sep-tember quarter.

Executives said consumers whoswitched to online grocery shoppingin peak lockdown months are notlikely to revert to supermarkets so-on, with convenience and persistingconcerns about the virus continu-ing to influence buying trends.

“Very early we realised that theconsumer will take to e-commerce;so we beefed up our teams, engage-ment and offerings (for digitalchannels) and increased our speedto the market,” said ITC chief ex-ecutive, personal care, Sameer Sat-pathy. For the diversified FMCG-

and-hotels company,e-commerce is nowfour times it was be-fore the pandemicstruck. “We bet on e-

commerce for in-creasing our speedto the market. Ithelped us in put-ting out innova-tions in the marketfaster,” Satpathysaid.

Citing innova-tion as a keygrowth driver in

the pandemic months, Satpathy sa-id the company which launchedover 40 new products during theCovid period now earns 30% of itsturnover from the new launches.

Company executives said an enti-

rely new set of consumers and ca-tegories are fuelling online sales,while consumers from two andthree-tier markets are also contri-buting to the strong acceleration ine-commerce.

Mama Earth, a four-year-old per-sonal care brand which alreadyhas 85% of its revenue comingfrom online channels, became mo-re aggressive in terms of investingin the channel said founder VarunAlagh. “Covid has helped us growat a faster pace and acquire morecustomers,” Alagh said.

Fitch Ratings said in a report last we-ek that full year revenue for food andgrocery retail could decline 5-10% onaccount of pandemic-induced lock-downs and overall slowdown.

For full report, go to www.economictimes.com

FMCG Sees Ecomm as Top Sales Channel in 2021Ratna Bhushan &

Shambhavi Anand

New Delhi: The biggest trend forfast moving consumer goods(FMCG) companies will be the surgein shopping on ecommerce plat-forms in 2021 as consumers are stillwary about shopping at physical sto-res, top Indian and global executivesrepresenting the sector told the CII-FMCG summit on Wednesday.

They added that India has massi-ve potential for growth, but thenext few quarters would be crucialfor sustained economic revival.

“The switch to online shopping ismassive. This change will stick, ir-respective of unlocking,” saidReckitt Benckiser global chief ex-ecutive Laxman Narasimhan. The

Experts sayconsumerswho switchedto onlineshoppingduringlockdownwon’t revert tosupermarketssoon

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