Today the official handle of Acharya Balkrishna, managing director of Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, tweeted in Hindi “Haridwar se har dwar tak” (From Haridwar to every doorstep). This promise follows the announcement of yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s company signing agreements with eight leading e-tailers and aggregators – Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm Mall, 1MG, Bigbasket, Grofers, Shopclues and Snapdeal-in the capital this morning.
The nation’s fascination for the indigenous brand and the disruption it caused in the FMCG space is old news now. While a 2017 Nirmal Bang report revealed that the brand already reaches nearly 53% households in personal care and 26% in food products – up nearly 100% from a year ago – online shoppers have often been left disappointed with various products being “out of stock”. All this will change with the new online partners coming on board.

According to Ramdev, the online mechanism aims to provide convenient and efficient option along with the extension of the traditional retail market. “Utmost care has been taken to ensure (the) Swadeshi movement and that Patanjali products reach into every household without compromising on policies and business ethics,” he added.
Of course, some of Patanjali’s products are already available on its own portal, patanjaliayurved.net, along with several online platforms through various other sellers but the new tie-ups will allow the Haridwar-based firm to not only systematically place its range of products but also extend reach significantly, including globally. Ramdev made one more announcement this morning: It will soon establish a production unit in Noida. Patanjali has reportedly created an ecosystem that helps to settle at least a million orders every day and it posted a sales growth of 10 crore last month.
Patanjali Ayurved decided to tweak its sales strategy last year when it departed from the branded franchise it relied on since inception to make its fledgling presence felt in the market and adopted the channel distribution route usually preferred by FMCG companies. The move was seen to be crucial to meet Ramdev’s ambitious target of annual sales of Rs 1 lakh crore by 2020.
With the new online gambit, Ramdev comes a step closer to seeing his dream come true. At the very least, the move is sure to help Patanjali carve out a bigger market share – the company is currently ranked number 7 in the FMCG space – and meet its turnover target of Rs 20,000 crore for this fiscal year, a twofold growth year-on-year.