Nestlé launches D2C platform in India

Nestlé has launched a direct-to-consumer (D2C) platform – MyNestle – in India. The FMCG conglomerate made the announcement alongside a trading update yesterday (20 October). MyNestle will launch initially in the Delhi National Capital Region, with further expansion planned for the rest of the country at an unspecified, later date. Under the MyNestle platform, the company plans to offer consumers curated product bundles, personalised gifting options, subscriptions and discounts. The platform will also offer recipes and free nutritional counseling. “Consumer relevance and connect is key for a Nestlé that is optimistic about its future,” said Nestlé India managing director Suresh Narayanan. “Created specifically keeping the consumer needs in mind, I am confident that MyNestlé will delight the consumer in every way.” E-commerce has become increasingly important for FMCG giants operating in India because of trading disruption related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many D2C platforms are still in their infancy, however, operating in limited cities and regions across the country. In its September earnings announcement, Nestlé India, which is publicly-listed, said its e-commerce channel “showed strong acceleration with growth being largely fuelled by new, emerging formats… and contributed 7.2% to the quarterly sales” in the third quarter. Total sales stood at INR45.67bn (US$551.9m), up 18.2%. At a group level, Nestlé’s underlying sales growth metric turned negative in its third quarter despite an acceleration in pricing. The Nesquik brand owner trimmed the number of “underperforming” SKUs at the start of the second quarter as a hedge against the continuing rise in input costs and longer-than-anticipated supply-chain pressures. As a result, third quarter real internal growth (RIG), which strips out pricing from organic growth, was minus 0.2%, compared to plus 0.9% in the prior three months and 4.4% from a year earlier. How India’s Covid-19 lockdown has fuelled FMCG interest in e-commerce