FMCG sector in India has one of the worst growths during COVID-19. Comparing with last year’s growth of 13.8 percentage it has come down to 6.3 percentage because of Pandemic Covid-19.
It has been seen in the past few weeks that consumers are focused more on buying and stocking up of household essentials than earlier. There has been an increase in the purchases of these products from 6 percentage to 10 percentage.
Consumers are more focused on food items and hygiene products like hand wash, sanitizers and home cleaning products because of COVID-19. Consumers fear that the lockdown will continue for a longer period than anticipated. But consumers do not stock up on non-food category FMCG products as a result the decline in this sector continues. Also, there is a decline in FMCG sector because of the regulations followed by e-commerce platforms amid COVID-19. There has also been a lesser number of orders of these products through E-commerce platforms by people even though there has been a greater number of people actively using E-commerce platforms for purchasing essential products.
In a recent survey published, FMCG goods showed a decline of 8.8 percentage from 11.1 percent last year in South India. North India grew only 4.6 percent comparing to 15.1 percent a year ago.
East India has the least growth with a growth of mere 2.6 percent from 14.9 percent last year. West India had a growth of 5 percent from 12.4 percent in the previous year.
Also comparing to Rural and Urban parts of our country, Rural India which contributes to 36 percentage of the overall FMCG purchases grew 4.9 percent whereas urban India grew at 4.8 percent. Comparing to the last quarter there has been a decline in the sector and is continuing to decline.
The extended lockdown is leading to a change in the consumption pattern of the consumers. These changes in the buying behavior of the consumers are said to last even after COVID-19 is gone according to some of the leading researchers in the world.
