Would Indians buy vibrators like their western counterparts? Or would they prefer some other product from a ‘pleasure superstore’? When TTK Healthcare started working on LoveDepot.com, its online sexual wellness store launched a few months ago, it had no clue on what would sell.
Vishal Vyas, AVP – Marketing, TTK Healthcare revealed this and more while speaking as part of a panel at MediaNews4u Straight Talk on 18 November 2022 alongside Rajiv Dubey, Head – Media, Dabur, moderated by Gokul Krishnamoorthy, Consulting Editor, MediaNews4u.com.
Vyas explained, “When we started working on it we had no exact idea on what the Indian consumer will accept and what will work. We had all information about the global market – vibrators basically contribute around 60 to 70pc of overall sexual wellness; if condom business all over the world is 8bn dollars, this category (vibrators) is around 50bn dollars. Lovedepot.com is a store so we wanted to have all the products. We stocked our range from the information we had from the global market; it is a four month-old brand now and we are seeing some traction. There are few brands, categories selling well. We are seeing a little bit of pattern emerging in that sense.”
The #1 product listed on the site as ‘Flying off our shelves’ is indeed a vibrator, offering some cues to Indian consumers’ preferences.
TTK Healthcare, which started importing condoms into India in 1920 and launched the country’s first non-subsidised condom brand Kohinoor in 1970, was also a pioneer in offline distribution, noted Vyas.
“In 1920 we pioneered offline FMCG distribution. TTK was the first company to bring Cadbury, Ponds to India. In 2022 we have moved into online distribution,” he explained.
LoveDepot sells a host of international brands (50) besides Skore, which was launched by TTK Healthcare in 2012.
“Two years of pandemic accelerated the whole transition of consumer into the digital space. We were the first brand to start dabbling into pleasure products in non-condom categories. When Skore came in, slowly we started moving into pleasure products like lubricants etc., so the brand kind of pioneered that. In 2014-’15 digital was taking shape and that was the only channel of hope for this category called pleasure products,” explained Vyas.
He added, “A brand which is born digitally and sold digitally as well, is becoming a trend. There are not many brands in sexual wellness which we deal with and hence it was an opportunity for us and that’s how we created a sexual health ecosystem.”
TTK Healthcare will launch a new brand in this ecosystem, revealed the speaker.
Meantime, on LoveDepot.com, orders are coming largely from major metros, with Bengaluru taking the lead followed by Delhi and Mumbai. “They are among the early adopters. Sales are seen in Tier 2 towns also; there are few customers but basket size is more,” according to the speaker.
For condoms, 12 to 13 percent of sales is from market places today for TTK Healthcare. Towards this, marketing spends on digital are also on the rise.
Vyas surmised, “Digital is the channel that will go further for marketplaces as well as D2C and we are very bullish about it. As far as ‘Skore’ is concerned, 40 to 50pc spends are on digital now. Our target audience is more active on digital.”
