ITC’s e-commerce boom! Online sales zoom 400% from pre-Covid-19 levels

Riding the post-Covid-19 wave of rising online purchases, backed by strong e-commerce platforms, consumer goods major ITC managed to grow its online channel exponentially in financial year 2022-23. Data from its recently released annual report shows that ITC’s sales through e-commerce channels surged faster than the market average.

According to the company, e-commerce sales grew rapidly and stood at approximately five times of the FY20 levels. As a result, the online channels accounted for over 10 per cent of its sales from packaged food and personal care categories during the year. 

“ITC’s collaborations with leading e-Commerce platforms on all aspects of operations viz. category development, marketing, supply chain and customer acquisition has enabled it to significantly scale up sales in this channel. This was augmented by development of exclusive and relevant pack assortments, driving ‘Digital First’ brands and enabling platform discoverability through jointly curated campaigns. Joint Business Plans, built and executed in close co-ordination with e-Commerce platforms, coupled with account specific strategies further consolidated the market standing of ITC in this channel,” the company noted.

During the year, consumers in urban markets continued to move towards modern trade and e-commerce, resulting in higher growth from the two channels. While in rural markets, ITC continued to deploy market-specific interventions to enhance direct coverage on the basis of socio-economic indicators and market potential.

To further boost its presence in the general trade, which includes local kirana stores, ITC expanded its rural stockists’ network by 20 per cent year-on-year in FY23. Over the last five years, market and outlet coverage have grown 350 per cent and 150 per cent respectively while the network of stockists has expanded to 8.3 times during the same period, it said. As a result, its market coverage in FY23 doubled in comparison to pre-pandemic levels. Currently, ITC’s products reach nearly seven million retail outlets of which more than 33 per cent are serviced directly.