Babycare internet portals offer offline deals to boost sales

BANGALORE: Babycare portal Firstcry has realised that shopping, especially for recurring purchases like diapers, more often than not is a habit -if the first brand tried by the new parents is satisfactory, then they tend to stick to it.
This pushed the Pune-based company to try out an initiative, where it gifted newborns in over 6,000 hospitals across 18 cities with hampers containing diapers and other such goods sold on the site. The programme was a massive success, leading to many new customers.

E-commerce companies are rapidly embracing the offline world to boost sales. Single-category players like Firstcry, Lenskart, Zivame and Healthkart are those at the forefront of this change.

While Firstcry has set up a network of 70 franchisee brick-andmortar stores across 45 cities, eyewear e-tailer Lenskart has roped in optometrists to visit homes of consumers to test their eyes and prescribe glasses.

Similarly, health and fitness portal Healthkart and lingerie site Zivame too have offline initiatives.

In this case, Firstcry has tied up with international brands like Mamy Poko, Libero and Palmer's free kits. Firstcry piloted this initiative in Pune last year and now delivers 60,000 packets every month.

“We are able to engage with the customers at the most important point -the birth of their child,“ said Supam Maheshwari, founder of Firstcry.

Global personal-care companies like Unicharm and SCA Hygiene Products provide samples of diapers, baby wipes and lotions, among other things, for the specially designed Firstcry hospital box.

“For us such initiatives, where we reach out to customers directly, is our number one marketing priority,“ said Cecilia Edebo, MD, SCA Hygiene Products India.

The Swedish company entered the Indian market last year with its diaper brand Libero and its paper tissue, wet wipes and hand sanitiser brand Tempo. The brands, which entered the market recently, use such initiatives to stand apart in the babycare market dominated by the likes of P&G's Pampers and Johnson & Johnson.

“These (Firstcry's partner brands) are not market leaders and need to create communication that gets them maximum mileage with less cash burn,“ said Ankur Bisen, a senior VP at retail advisory Technopak. “They might be large global brands, but Indian customers do not know them.“

This is the case for Japanese firm Unicharm, which started selling products like diaper brand MamyPoko in India in 2010. “We have seen that being the first diaper is important as the mother keeps buying that in the future,“ said a top executive at Unicharm India. He said money spent on this initiative is a fraction of their television advertising budget.

The brands and Firstcry declined to share the cost of the programme. However, the total value of the products provided by the brands ranges from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000. The brands also bear most of the distribution expenses.

Firstcry has set up a team and built special technology platforms for analytics, which helps brands track post-trial sales online.

Each Firstcry box comes with a unique code that gives a discount to the customer when they make their first purchase online. With the first purchase, the online retail er gets the details of the customer and can track future purchases.

“We want to do it right in India and want to find out what works,“ said SCA Hygiene's Edebo. The company is already seeing results. SCA does not distribute its products in the East and Northeast of India, but after becoming a part of the hospital box programme it has seen online sales go up in this region. “Overall, we have seen 75% conversion in the form of usage, repurchase and recommendation,“ said Edebo.

About 25% of new customers at Firstcry comes from this programme each month.

It intends to scale up the hospital box initiative from 60,000 boxes a month currently to over one lakh by April next year.