Unilever, L'Oréal ride India’s ecommerce boom

Unilever and L’Oréal reported rising sales from ecommerce channels, with India identified as a key growth market in their Q3 earnings calls.

L’Oréal CEO Nicolas Hieronimus said quick-commerce and traditional ecommerce platforms in India have enabled faster product reach nationwide.

He noted that these platforms are helping the company launch new products and expand existing brands more efficiently.

Unilever CEO Fernando Fernandez said digital commerce now contributes 17% of the company’s revenue, with growth rates of 15% on Amazon, 25% on Walmart.com, 30% on Flipkart in India, and 70% on TikTok globally.

Unilever, which operates in India through Hindustan Unilever Ltd., said its quick-commerce business in the country has more than doubled this year.

Both companies said ecommerce growth is outpacing traditional retail, with L’Oréal reporting a 12% rise in its global ecommerce sales.

🔗 Source: YourStory

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

India quick-commerce beauty lacks scale

Unilever and L’Oréal say quick-commerce (rapid-delivery services that deliver in minutes) is growing in India, yet the beauty and personal care market was $28 billion in 2024, online share at 17% vs 13% 1.
Online beauty value rose 39% from June to November 2024, while stores grew 3%, yet the jump starts from a small base relative to Unilever and L’Oréal global revenue 1.
Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart deliver beauty in minutes, fueling impulse buys, yet the overall quick-commerce market was $3.34 billion in 2025 2.
Big percentage gains can hide small dollars, so India adds a modest slice to Unilever and L’Oréal ecommerce revenue 1.

TikTok Shop GMV surge exposes tooling gaps

TikTok Shop, an in-feed marketplace, reached $33.2 billion in global GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) in 2024, and the US hit $9 billion after a September 2023 debut 3.
Short videos drove 58% of US GMV as only 216,000 of 475,000 shops sell actively, revealing friction in content and inventory plus cross-platform fulfillment (coordinating orders across multiple marketplaces plus logistics providers) 4.
Beauty and Personal Care leads TikTok Shop with $2.5 billion GMV in the first half of 2025, opening room for SaaS (Software as a Service) tools for creator analytics plus affiliate tracking 4.
Brands expanding from Amazon or Shopify need live-stream tools and creator management on TikTok Shop, with 15.3 million influencers yet only 291 top $1 million GMV, leaving a long-tail discovery problem (smaller creators plus products are hard to surface) 4.