Indian consumer space to get a face-lift in coming years: Study

The Indian household and personal care segment is set to change significantly in the coming years as consumption habits, fuelled by rising disposable income and changing lifestyles, align themselves with global trends, a report says.

According to global research firm Macquarie, it is "time to look beyond fairness cream and hair oils", as Indian consumers would start to look beyond "fairness" in personal care.

The significant change will be accentuated by the bustling middle class and the importance foreign MNCs are giving to India.

L'Oreal aims for sales of around 1 billion euro by 2020 in India, Reckitt aims to make India its largest global sales contributor by 2016 and P&G plans to increase its number of product categories in India to 25 by 2015/16 from 15 in 2011.

The report further noted that the penetration of key categories with significant market sizes, like soaps, detergents, oral care, hair oil and shampoo have either reached maturity or is fast approaching it.

Besides, many categories like hair oil, talcum powder, hair dye and tooth powder will face serious growth challenges in the medium to long-term as consumers upgrade or switch to substitutes like hair styling gel, deodorants, hair colour and tooth paste.

"We believe these categories, although they may not have reached penetration maturity, may face headwinds amid changing consumer preferences on rising aspirations and availability of superior substitutes," the report said.

As competition from global players increase domestic players will have to "innovate" and offer new product offerings or acquire brands to enter into low penetration categories or foray into International markets.

Another growth lever for Indian players could be international markets like Africa and the less developed countries in Asia, where they could gain from penetration- driven growth as seen in India 10-15-years ago.

"Companies like Dabur, Godrej Consumer, Marico and Emami have either acquired companies in these regions or have increased their own presence," Macquarie said.

Going forward, Indian consumer will have access to new categories as well as a wide range of products thanks to rapid urbanisation and rising roll out of new products by global players.

In the next 5-10 years, bath soaps are likely to be replaced by shower gel or liquid soap variants, consumers would go for liquid detergent than powder detergent and there will be growing use of hair or fabric conditioner.

Moreover, the Indian consumer is likely to shift to new categories like deodorants and styling gel away from traditional categories like talcum powder and hair oils, Macquarie said.