Unilever & L’Oréal see sales surge from India’s quick commerce and digital channels

New Delhi: Multinational consumer goods companies Unilever and L’Oréal reported robust e-commerce growth during the September quarter, with India emerging as one of their fastest-growing markets.

Both firms said sales from digital and quick commerce channels have more than doubled in India, driven by the expansion of hyper-local delivery platforms and rising online consumption.

French beauty company L’Oréal’s chief executive, Nicolas Hieronimus, who recently visited India, described the country’s quick-commerce and traditional e-commerce platforms as transformative for business growth.

“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’s chief executive, Fernando Fernandez, said digital commerce now contributes 17% of the British company’s global revenue.

"We are growing Amazon at 15%. We are growing Walmart.com at 25%. We are growing Flipkart in India at 30%, growing TikTok globally at 70%," he said.

Unilever, which operates in India through its subsidiary Hindustan Unilever (HUL), said its product portfolio has evolved following a series of divestments and acquisitions focused on premium categories.

"Now, 'digitally native brands' are operating with a lot of success," Fernandez said.

He added that India and China are showing strong momentum in the segment.

“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," Fernandez noted.

Hieronimus said digital and e-commerce channels are outperforming broader market growth.

"When we say the market is growing a bit above plus 3%, probably the growth rate of e-commerce is more than twice that. We grow our e-commerce growth by plus 12% right now,” he said.

He added that online channels are helping the company reach new consumers in several key regions.

"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’Oréal said earlier this week that its Indian operations reported strong performance across consumer and professional product segments during the nine months ended September 2025.