FMCG To Fintech — Here’s How The Lockdown Helped the Growth of Some Companies

The lockdown was hard on a lot of businesses but some industries grew during the crisis.

What Happened?

Parle Products senior category head Mayank Shah told PTI that Parle Product logged record sales of its Parle-G biscuits in April and May during the lockdown. He also said that the company’s market share grew around 5% and 80–90% of that growth came from the sales of Parle-G biscuits.

But how did Parle manage to do this? Firstly, a lot of households bought the biscuits when they were stacking up on simple essential food items.

Secondly, government agencies and many NGOs bought massive quantities to feed the ones who didn’t have access to food.

But Parle G is not alone in this success journey. Several other industries did quite well during this lockdown.

The Ones Who Hit The Jackpot

FMCG Industry

• Parle Agro also said that it has witnessed a 300% jump in sales on the e-commerce platform in April
• Bengaluru-headquartered MTR foods said that sales through e-commerce rose from 2.2% pre-COVID to 4.5% now
• Kerala-based packaged foods company Elite Foods witnessed a 100% jump in online sales in certain regions for its products

Fintech Apps

• A study published by deVere Group said that the usage of fintech apps has surged by 72% in Europe.
• Meanwhile, banking apps in Asia and the Middle East have also reported a sharp increase in usage.
• The RCBC Bank in the Phillippines was witnessing more than double the usual registrations for its online banking service.

Streaming Services

• Netflix has already seen record viewing numbers since the beginning of the lockdown.
• The company said that nearly 16 million created accounts in the first three months of 2020, which is nearly double the number of new sign-ups in the final months of 2019.

Online gaming

• Reports from BARC India & Nielsen suggest that the time spent on online gaming has surged by 44% in mid-May from around 11% in mid-March.
• Since IPL and other live sporting events have been postponed, fantasy sports gaming players like Dream11 and MPL have become a major hit amongst people.

The surge in businesses and the jump in online sales show how consumer behaviour has changed by the coronavirus pandemic. However, the pandemic also showed that not all businesses can recover from the damage completely. On the other hand, this lockdown has opened up a lot of opportunities for some companies.

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