Avijit Chaudhury Official

Driven by increasing share of middle income households and potential of increasing penetration, the direct selling market in India has the potential to reach INR 645 billion by 2025.

Direct Selling Penetration - Global comparison In China, the direct selling industry has flourished 2006 onwards and has grown significantly over the past years.13 Currently, China’s industry penetration stands at twice that of India at 0.8 per cent. Other Asian markets like Indonesia, Japan and South Korea have much higher direct selling penetration levels. Malaysia has the maximum direct selling penetration in Asia with 4.3 per cent. India’s direct selling penetration is the lowest among comparable economies at ~0.4 per cent of the retail sales. Given its under-penetration in global comparison, it has a significant potential to growth going forward. Growth in Consumer Markets The overall industry growth in the key categories of direct selling such as health and wellness, cosmetics & personal care, household goods, and others can fuel direct selling growth. Most of these categories, which are key contributors to the direct selling industry are projected to grow at 10-15 percent.

Growth Drivers / Key Trends

Increasing Personal Disposable Income

Driven by robust GDP growth, the Indian household income is likely to triple by 2025, from INR 115,000 currently to INR 320,000 (approx.) Due to rise in employment rate, disposable incomes has also increased resulting in improving the sales of the goods and services across the direct selling industry.

Urbanisation and Lifestyle Changes

• In 2011, about 28 per cent of India’s population resided in urban areas which is expected to see an increase and reach to 33 per cent in 2021 (1.5 times the growth of overall population). • Urbanisation is expected to have a positive impact on the lifestyles of people as they will likely have more exposure to better quality products and services. • Also along with rapid urbanisation, by 2021 a higher share of the population is expected to shift towards the workable age group. Convenience and improvement of lifestyle should trigger a demand for direct selling products specially packaged food, cosmetics and household appliances

Significant rise of women in urban work force

• According to India’s National Sample Survey, the proportion of working women in urban areas increased from 11.9 per cent in 2001 to 15.4 per cent in 2011.

• As a result of more women being employed, there has been an increase in the disposable income leading to increased capacity to spend. This will help further aid the growth of the industry.

Increasing reach of the direct selling industry14

• Direct Selling companies are now expanding their reach and are trying to enter Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and rural areas, providing the consumers with knowledge about different products and services

• Maintaining good quality at affordable prices; demand for these products has increased and has resulted in increase in the number of products sold through the direct selling channel.

• Increased focus on the agricultural sector could boost rural incomes, and could provide better growth prospects for direct selling companies going forward.

Opportunity to be created by Direct Selling companies along with Socio economic impact of the industry by 2025.

Opportunity in 2025 The growth in the directs selling industry is expected to have cascading effect on the following factors:

Self-employment opportunities.

The growth of the direct selling industry will likely be driven by on-ground direct sellers. Considering global benchmarks for the industry, the industry can potentially engage ~18million direct sellers by 2025.

Increase in self-employment opportunities for the female population.

The direct selling industry has traditionally had a

higher participation from women. Considering

prevailing trends, by 2025, the industry can

potentially engage over 10 million women as direct

sellers providing additional income opportunities to

the households.

Employment generation

With an average of over 0.4 workers per INR 0.1 million of output generated, the industry is expected to provide direct employment to 2.5 million people by 2025 through its manufacturing operations.15

Industry contribution towards Social responsibility.

In August 2013, the Indian parliament passed the Indian Companies Act, 2013 (the “New Act”), which replaced the

Companies Act of 1956. The New Act has imposed compulsory corporate social responsibility obligations (CSR) upon

Indian companies and foreign companies operating in India. Companies with a turnover of INR 1,000 crore or net profit of

INR 5 crore or more have to spend 2 per cent of their net profit for the preceding three years on CSR. With the New Act in

place the direct selling industry’s contribution towards CSR is expected to magnify significantly. The industry is expected

to contribute over INR 300 million towards CSR activities by 2025 annually (considering that 50 per cent revenues will be

generated by companies falling under the requirements of the Act).16 Besides the mandatory requirement, many other

direct selling companies contribute significantly towards CSR.

Contribution to government Revenue

Considering Market Potential and future growth of the industry to USD 645 Billion in 2025, the contribution to the government revenue is also expected to increase 9 folds to ~INR 90 Billion by 2025.