Rishi Chandiok, Regional Director (South Asia), QNet Ltd., e-commerce enabled direct selling business, told SME Times in an exclusive interview that the Indian direct selling industry has the potential to expand exponentially.
1. Please tell our readers about QNET India and how it allows them to start their own company.
QNET is a direct sale business based on e-commerce that was established in 1998. QNET has customers and distributors in nearly 100 countries, including India, and provides a wide range of fitness, wellness, and lifestyle products through its proprietary e-commerce platform. The direct selling business model of QNET enables young entrepreneurs to become distributors of the company’s goods and services, earning commissions on product sales made by them and their referrals. For nearly ten years, QNET has offered a wide range of exclusive products produced in collaboration with both SMEs and well-known brands through a local franchisee operation in India. To assist new distributors in growing their businesses, we provide an onboarding process, training program, and support system. Due to the versatility, it provides to those seeking self-employment opportunities, Direct Selling has seen tremendous growth in India in recent years. With our high-quality products and attractive compensation package that has helped thousands of Indian micro-entrepreneurs create effective sales businesses, we believe QNET in India is well placed to capitalize on this trend.
2. Please discuss the Direct Selling industry’s growth in India and how it is assisting entrepreneurship.
Because of the versatility, it provides its distributor employees, the direct sale industry has the potential to expand exponentially. According to the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA), the Indian direct selling industry produced USD 2.47 billion in revenue in 2019, representing a 12.1% year-over-year increase. India is now ranked 15th in the world, up to four positions from last year.
Direct sale has always been a recession-resistant market. During a recession, people search for ways to supplement their income and many who have lost their jobs and are unable to find new ones turn to direct sales as a source of self-employment. Despite the recent economic fallout from the pandemic, which has derailed many businesses and sectors, the Direct Selling industry is one of the few that has seen positive growth by tackling youth unemployment. According to a study by the Indian Direct Sale Association (IDSA), the direct selling sector saw 53 lakh, new entrants, in the first six months of the previous year.
Direct sale is very common with women because of the flexible nature of the business model, which allows them to plan their business needs around their family and household obligations. According to a study by FICCI-KPMG, approximately 3.6 million women work in India’s direct sale industry, either part-time or full-time.
3. In this regard, growth in the fitness, wellness, and home & living segments… what are your thoughts?
Health and wellbeing have become a big focal area for all of us as a result of the pandemic. We’ve seen a steady increase in demand for items that improve immunity and encourage overall wellness. ImmunHealth, gut health, DailyHealth, and LivHealth, a line of items aimed at enhancing particular aspects of our bodies, have been added to QNET’s Nutriplus line of health supplements. Antioxidants, wellness teas, energy boosters, bone and skin health supplements, and superfoods like monofloral honey are all included in this product group. Our monofloral honey products come from forests in Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu, and they help local farmers. Our Celestial Green and Black Tea is sourced from a single estate in Darjeeling, supporting a local SME. We also make certain that all of our goods are sourced ethically and responsibly, with minimal environmental effects, while supporting small businesses and communities in the region.
We expect our health and wellness portfolio to expand significantly over the next two years. We’ve also seen an increase in demand for our home and living goods. Sharp’s proprietary Plasmacluster Ion Technology (PCI) helps deactivate airborne novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) by 90% when exposed to the technology for 30 seconds (according to a Sharp Global report).
4. Please inform our readers about QNET’s digital change in the Covid case.
We were early adopters of the digital ecosystem because QNET’s business is predominantly conducted through an e-commerce platform. The past year has shown to all companies the importance of digital transformation to survive and thrive in these unprecedented times. Our priority has always been to assist our distributors during this difficult period. For our company and goods, we’ve turned to online training. We hold virtual training sessions for our distributors once a week to help them better understand our products and business model. Via our online content library, you can access our business resources and marketing materials as e-books and videos. Our distributors seamlessly changed and adapted to conducting business in the virtual world, which amazed us. When our annual conference was held in a virtual format in March 2021, we were astounded to learn that it drew a record-breaking audience of nearly 350,000 distributors from more than 50 countries, including India!
5. What do you think the market trends will be in 2022?
In the past year, the social sale has become a common trend. With the influx of digital natives into the workforce, using newer social media sites like Instagram to advertise goods through innovative videos and visual posts has become increasingly common. Influencer marketing for brand and product recognition continues to be driven by millennials and Gen Z.
Virtual training, which began as a reaction to lockdowns, has proven to be very successful in allowing many people to participate who would otherwise be unable to due to financial or logistical constraints.
Even in the post-Covid world, we believe virtual pieces of training are here to stay. The government of India’s ‘Vocal for Local’ initiative encourages Indians to purchase more locally produced goods.
Make-in-India products are becoming increasingly popular among foreign direct selling companies operating in India. The industry is focusing on catering to this segment with indigenous goods as a result of the increased emphasis on overall health. We have over 80 products in the fitness, wellness, and lifestyle categories at QNET India, with 75 percent of them being ‘Made in India.’
6. Please share your thoughts on how to improve the way distributors operate to preserve social distance.
The personal touch and one-on-one relationships built between distributors and customers are at the heart of direct sales. Personal meetings and community presentations about the company were the best ways to develop the business in the pre-Covid period. With social distancing in effect, the direct sale business model’s very foundation was jeopardized. This is, however, a rather robust and adaptable business, as history has shown. To stay in touch with their teams and plan presentations and training programs, both companies in the industry and distributors have switched to virtual networks and digital resources. All of the pre-Covid leadership and personal growth preparation came in handy as distributors around the world remained unfazed and devised new, innovative ways to address the obstacles faced by social distancing.
The numbers speak for themselves, with most direct sale businesses seeing positive growth around the world.
