A Brief Overview About E-Commerce in FMCG Sales & Distribution

The pandemic changed the way people shop worldwide, with new retail formats becoming increasingly significant to brands, which is exemplified by the boom of E-Commerce. The landscape of shopping dramatically transformed over the last few years, and while retail still holds a lot of significance, E-Commerce has taken off and is expected to further aid FMCG brands in driving sales, increasing market share, and attracting new customers.

The FMCG sector has also witnessed a remarkable transformation in recent years, especially in terms of the adoption of online sales across distinct categories. Digital innovation and the growth of E-Commerce have led to the emergence of several fresh players in the market who are giving stiff competition to existing players. With differentiated business models optimized to serve the rising demands of the present consumers, these players are expected to contribute to more sales for the online FMCG sector over the coming years.

In this blog, we will talk about how Gulf International perceived this opportunity at the right time and progressively gave exemplary growth to its partners over the years.

GI and E-Commerce:

2015 saw the foundation of E-Commerce laid on a small scale at Gulf International at a time when consumers were more focused on purchasing electronic goods online rather than consumer goods.

But the E-Commerce landscape shifted in 2017 when Amazon acquired ‘souq.com’ in the UAE, and an entirely new set of players started entering the market, along with new challenges and opportunities. Soon after this acquisition and the influx of fresh players into the market, consumers started to see lower prices, improved delivery speeds, and a better product selection. This caused GI to re-furbish its business strategy and accept the challenge by altering current tactics and introducing unique ideas.

Around the year 2020, when the world was still struggling to come to terms with life during Covid, E-Commerce brands experienced a spike in sales and traffic as the crisis became a catalyst for the shift in consumer behavior to the E-Commerce business. Gulf International delivered 500% growth to some of its brands through the E-Commerce platform. The E-Commerce business was booming during this time, and some brands underwent a journey of 5-6 years during this limited span of time.

Very soon, E-Commerce took a new shape in the form of Quick-Commerce or Q-Commerce, where locally grown companies like Talabat, Noon, and Careem targeted 20-minute deliveries to consumers across categories like fresh food, grocery, personal care, and small appliances. Even though an expensive model, consumers were fast to embrace the convenience offered by this service.

Even today, the E-Commerce sales at Gulf International sales are thriving, with a growing & dedicated team and client base. The GI team foresees that even though E-Commerce is more expensive than Modern Trade, it is slowly reaching its maturity stage, and eventually, the brands that can manage the increasing cost of business online will be the ones to survive the longest.

Today, the E-Commerce space is proliferating, and more and more consumers are opting for online shopping for their everyday needs, from groceries to food to furniture to electronics and more. E-Commerce offers convenience, value for money, and frequently updated inventory. With an increasing number of consumers looking to buy FMCG products online, distributors have never had a better time to exploit this channel.

Gulf International not only understands this but also offers the first-mover advantage, expertise, and deep insights of conducting business in this growing channel and can take your brand to explore new horizons in this channel.