The FMCG playbook is becoming increasingly digital, and Marico’s latest numbers offer a clear indication of just how far that shift has progressed.
Marico’s overall digital salience, including e-commerce and D2C, reached 20% of its India business in FY26 quick commerce accounted for around 5%, which the company described as an emerging key growth driver
The numbers point to a significant change in the way FMCG brands are reaching consumers. Digital is no longer simply an additional distribution or marketing channel sitting alongside the traditional retail network. It is becoming a meaningful part of the business itself.
Digital is moving into the mainstream
Marico’s India business recorded turnover of ₹10,348 crore in FY26, growing 28% year-on-year, with underlying volume growth of 8%.
Against that backdrop, the company’s digital salience reaching 20% is significant. It means that e-commerce and D2C together now represent a substantial part of the company’s India business, while quick commerce is building its own momentum.
Marico said quick commerce is “emerging as a key growth driver”, with its salience reaching approximately 5%.
For FMCG marketers, the significance extends beyond the channel numbers. As more consumer transactions move online, the places where consumers discover, evaluate and purchase brands are increasingly converging.
Quick commerce adds another layer
The rapid emergence of quick commerce is creating another important route to consumers.
Marico’s management highlighted quick commerce as a key growth driver, while its broader digital salience has reached 20%.
The company is therefore operating across a consumer environment where traditional general trade, e-commerce, D2C and quick commerce increasingly coexist.
That is reflected in Marico’s wider distribution strategy. While digital channels are expanding, the company is simultaneously strengthening its direct reach in general trade through Project SETU, with an ambition to achieve approximately 1.5 times its direct reach by FY27.
The message from Marico is not that digital is replacing traditional retail. Rather, the consumer is increasingly being reached through multiple channels.
D2C is also changing how brands operate
Marico’s digital shift goes beyond selling existing products online.
Its digital-first portfolio exited FY26 with an annualised revenue run-rate of more than ₹1,100 crore. The company says its digital-first model is built around data-led decision-making, rapid innovation and agile execution, with a growing focus on improving unit economics and profitability.
That gives the 20% digital salience number another dimension.
Digital is influencing not just where products are sold, but how some of Marico’s newer brands are built and managed.
The company says it is using real-time data, predictive insights and customer-centric innovation to enable faster decision-making, demand forecasting and cost optimisation as it builds future-ready digital brands.
The consumer is becoming harder to reach through one channel
Marico’s management has also acknowledged the increasing number of competing brands across both offline and online marketplaces.
Responding to questions about the company’s key brands, Gupta said that maintaining brand relevance, market share and pricing power is critical as competition increases.
For marketers, that creates a more complicated challenge.
Consumers can encounter a brand in a traditional retail outlet, discover it through digital channels, compare alternatives online and potentially complete the purchase through a quick-commerce platform.
That makes distribution, discovery and brand building increasingly interconnected.
The next FMCG battle is for digital relevance
Marico’s numbers suggest that the question for FMCG marketers is no longer whether they need a digital strategy.
The bigger question is how deeply digital should be embedded into the entire brand and business strategy.
With e-commerce and D2C accounting for 20% of Marico’s India business, quick commerce at around 5%, and its digital-first portfolio crossing ₹1,100 crore in annualised revenue, digital is becoming too significant to remain a peripheral part of the FMCG playbook.
At the same time, Marico continues to invest in traditional distribution, indicating that the future is likely to be less about offline versus online and more about how effectively brands can operate across both.
For FMCG marketers, Marico’s numbers offer a straightforward signal: the consumer is already moving across channels. The brands that win will need to do the same.
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First Published onAugust 26, 2026, 10:06:49 IST
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