By Alexander Marrow
LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Influencers and AI-generated avatars selling everything from Durex condoms to Harpic toilet cleaner on livestreaming apps in China are propelling emerging-market led growth for consumer goods company Reckitt.
E-commerce now accounts for around 80% of China’s total sales, Reckitt said at an emerging-markets-focused event on Thursday, up from about 30% before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reckitt’s use of influencers, Agentic AI and its own salespeople on platforms like Douyin to reach consumers has helped the company to acquire 40 million new customers in China this year.
Reckitt said it has produced more than one million short videos that have attracted 15 billion views and more than 100,000 hours of livestreaming to drive sales. A typical livestream that can feature Reckitt sales people, influencers or AI avatars lasts for four hours.
“We think we are ahead of our competition when it comes to speed of innovation,” said Emerging Markets President Nitish Kapoor, pointing to new category and product launches and rapid customer feedback.
“What takes weeks and months in many markets happens here in hours and days,” said Vivien Huang, Reckitt marketing director in Beijing. “Within hours, we see which message, tone, or call to action resonates, and we refine it immediately.”
Reckitt, which is in the final stages of selling its Essential Home business to Advent International, has narrowed its focus to core “powerbrands” and is cutting costs to increase margins as the household products sector grapples with fragile consumer sentiment and pressure from private-label competitors.
China has delivered nine consecutive quarters of double-digit revenue growth, which Reckitt puts down to a focus on consumer health products, trusted brands and innovation.
In other markets e-commerce is not such a big player. In India, where “offline” (sales through bricks and mortar shops) contributes around 85% of total sales, Reckitt uses data and AI to tailor its product offering to different customers across the country.
China, India and Brazil are among Reckitt’s top 10 countries for sales and emerging markets accounted for around 42% of core net revenues in the third quarter.
Barclays analysts estimated that share could rise to 50% by 2030. They calculated that not much, if any, growth is needed in developed markets for Reckitt to achieve guidance of 4-5% core revenue growth in the medium term.
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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