Unilever’s ecommerce business grew rapidly in 2020 as it capitalised on online demand, which grew as a result of lockdown measures.
It now plans to continue upgrading its direct to consumer operation – one of its five strategic pillars for growth – drawing on consumer insight to help it build the channel.
Ecommerce grew by 61% last year and it now accounts for 9% of Unilever’s business.
Speaking on an investor call this morning (4 February) to mark the company’s 2020 financial results, CFO Graeme Pitkethly said ecommerce “continues to perform strongly, outperforming the market significantly”.
Ecommerce sales for its Prestige portfolio of premium brands, such as Dermalogica, Murad and Kate Somerville, grew by more than 50%, for example.
Pitkethly said the company “rapidly pivoted” resources to suit in-home consumption of food too. It launched ideas such as Ben & Jerry’s Netflix & Chilll’d variant, to support its ‘Ice cream now’ home delivery service, helping its online ice cream business double in 2020.
Overall, in-home ice cream sales rose 17% last year, which helped to offset the 20% decline seen in out-of-home sales.
While Unilever pulled back on marketing spend when the pandemic hit, ceasing all major advertising in the first half of 2020, it invested heavily in the second half of the year, Jope said, with investment up €160m (£140m) across the full year.
“We stepped up investment in BMI (brand and marketing investment) strongly in the second half by brand campaigns and product innovation that had been tailored to be specific to the new environment,” he said.
“That includes more hygiene-based communication and in-home consumption opportunities. An example of this was the Hellmann’s ‘Stay In(spired)’ campaign. As a result, BMI spend was up by 100 basis points in the [second] half.”
https://www.marketingweek.com/unilever-direct-to-consumer-online-sales-surge/