With the Omicron cases rising, countries across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region are once again mulling about lockdowns and restrictions, despite the potential economic fallout and public protests. Consumers are turning more particular about personal cleanliness and sanitation, which is driving the sales of personal hygiene solutions. Subsequently, manufacturers are gearing up to roll out innovative and improved hygiene products and scale up the production and supply, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
With the increasing realization that the pandemic is far from over, growing consumer focus on personal wellness will catalyze the demand across various categories of hygiene products, including soap, handwashes, and hand sanitizers in the immediate future.
Anchal Bisht, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Online platforms received a shot-in-the-arm from the pandemic-related lockdowns and restrictions in 2020. With shoppers growing more accustomed to the wide product choices, competitive prices, and the safety and convenience of contactless payment and doorstep deliveries, the customer base and transaction size of ecommerce platforms has ballooned over the last two years.
“Online retailers are already capturing a sizable chunk of personal hygiene sales, given that 71% of the APAC respondents in *GlobalData’s Q4 2021 survey said that they typically purchase healthcare, hygiene, and toiletries through various online sub-channels*.”
GlobalData’s market data shows that eRetailer sales of personal hygiene products shot up from $666.4m in 2019 to $948.7m in 2020, registering a double-digit annual growth of 42.4%+. However, the growth momentum slowed in the following year, with value sales inching up to $992.3m in 2021, in line with the overall trend in the category+. The rapid spread of the new wave of COVID-19 will fuel demand for personal hygiene products and sustain the upward trajectory in the coming years. Online retailers are well positioned to capture this change in the category fortunes.
Anchal concludes: “The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of the retail sector, and personal hygiene brands are striving to leverage the most of this trend through an omnichannel approach. Going forward, manufacturers are expected to step up consumer engagement with exclusively online promotions and advertisement campaigns on social media sites. Brands can focus on creating a personalized, virtual shopping experience for consumers to increase more engagement, especially among the younger demographics.”
*Data taken from GlobalData’s Q4 2021 Consumer Survey – Asia and Australasia with 6,207 respondents, published in December 2021
+Data taken from GlobalData Consumer Intelligence Center – Market Analyzers, accessed in January 2022
