Multinational consumer goods companies Unilever and L'Oréal are witnessing strong growth on e-commerce platforms in many markets, with India emerging as a standout performer.
Unilever and L'Oréal, in their earnings calls for the September quarter, reported a doubling of their sales, helped by hyper-local delivery platforms that are growing rapidly in the country.
French beauty major L’Oréal’s CEO Nicolas Hieronimus, who was in India earlier this month, said quick-commerce or traditional e-commerce platforms in the country are a game changer, helping to penetrate much faster with new products or continuing to animate existing brand." “We were talking about the US, but 10 days ago, I was in India, where it’s clearly a game changer for us because whether it’s quick commerce or the traditional platform allows us to reach consumers all over the country, which we could not do before,” said Hieronimus while replying to a query.
Unilever CEO Fernando Fernandez said digital commerce accounts for 17 per cent of the British consumer goods company’s revenue.
"We are growing Amazon at 15 per cent. We are growing Walmart.com at 25 per cent. We are growing Flipkart in India at 30 per cent, growing TikTok globally at 70 per cent," he said while responding to a query.
Unilever, which operates in India through its subsidiary HUL, said its portfolio is much better suited now, following the research it has done through disposals of value brands and significant acquisitions in the premium segments.
Now, 'digitally native brands' are operating with a lot of success, said Fernando.
In markets such as the US, this portfolio has the highest e-commerce exposure that Unilever has globally, he said.
“But we see similar trends in other markets, China, India. Our quick commerce business in India is more than doubling this year. We believe our portfolios are well-suited, our capabilities are significant in that space," said Fernando.
French beauty major L’Oréal’s CEO Nicolas Hieronimus said digital and e-commerce can overperform the market.
"When we say the market is growing a bit above plus 3 per cent, probably the growth rate of e-commerce is more than twice that. We grow our e-commerce growth by plus 12 per cent right now,” he said.
Hieronimus further said: "We are really doubling down on that because it allows us to reach new consumers, whether in India and Saudi Arabia, in the US, or in China, where it’s the largest part of our business. E-commerce also allows us to penetrate much faster with new products or continue to animate the existing brand." L'Oreal, earlier this week, said its Indian operations witnessed a strong performance in both consumer products and professional products businesses in the nine months ended September 2025.
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