The EUROMONITOR Take On Fmcg

Although amongst the last few countries globally to have been infected by coronavirus (COVID-19), the Indian government’s announcement on 24 March to lockdown 1.3 billion Indians in the second-most populous country globally for a period of 21 days initially, and then extended by an additional 15 days, has led to the shutdown of factories, crippled the supply chain and made around 278 million sq m of retail space redundant.

This comes on the back of the worst economic slowdown in a decade that the government was trying to revive prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Euromonitor International predicts that Indian real GDP could dip into negative territory in 2020 depending on the severity of the COVID-19 crisis.

Beauty and personal care: focus on personal hygiene while beauty takes a backseat

Growing awareness of maintaining high hygiene standards to prevent the spread of COVID-19 resulted in a spike in demand for personal care products, especially bar soap, liquid handwash, and sanitisers, during March. These categories accounted for 22% of overall value sales of beauty and personal care in India in 2019. As consumer priorities shift to focus on purchasing necessities, discretionary spending on beauty and personal care categories such as colour cosmetics, fragrances, deodorants, and skincare are expected to witness a fall in demand in the short term.