New Delhi: Health monitoring products maker Omron Healthcare of Japan is seeking to leverage the e-commerce space in India to find new customers and drive sales before reaching out to chain pharmacies in financial year 2018-2019. The company wants to expand the coverage and customer base, targeting a turnover of 192 crore for financial year 2018.
Omron, which already has a tie-up with e-commerce behemoth Amazon, is in talks with other e-commerce majors to encourage more buyers to join online channels.
“E-commerce platforms are helping the average Indian to have more choices in products and services as per requirement. This segment has seen a phenomenal growth in the last 2-3 years and the market is set to expand further year-on- year. Omron will keep focusing on e-commerce and drive up sales volume and reach in this growing avenue in financial year 2018-2019. We look at achieving around 25% contribution to our business from e-commerce,” said Kazunori Tokura, managing director, Omron Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.
The company also plans to expand its retail presence across the country by penetrating across 40 focus tier 1 and tier 2 cities. “One of the significant components of this will be increasing the number of retailers from the current 30,000 to around 40,000 by end of financial year 2018-2019,” he added. The company’s product line in India includes blood pressure monitors, blood glucose monitors, thermometers, nebulizers, respiratory devices and body composition monitors.
With non-communicable diseases on the rise in India, the company sees home healthcare monitoring as a value tool, focused not only to prevent diseases but help patients take better care of themselves.
“One third people have hypertension in India and 60% don’t know they have hypertension. So, our business endeavours include a gamut of above-the- line and below-the-line marketing initiatives which will focus on creating awareness around the importance of home monitoring and the respective product categories. We would be doing this both through online and off-line channels and from the marketing standpoint it would be more digital and social media driven.”
An expansion strategy has already been chalked out to make Indians more receptive to technology-enabled care. “India is globally number two in smart phone use. But in home healthcare India is number 6 after Japan, China, US, Brazil and Russia. India has a potential And we want to develop a culture in India where people are encouraged to monitor their BP at home,” he said.
The company has moved to a more digitized and connected product portfolio with the introduction of its new BP machine model which is Bluetooth enabled. These products, it says, will help consumers easily monitor their health, maintain a record and share it with the doctor—even remotely.
“The idea is to enable the users to keep a record of their progress using their smart phones which would be connected to their devices via blue tooth technology. We have launched some BPM Models which are Blue tooth enabled (including our newest launch HEM -7600T) and for non- blue tooth devices we would have reading recognition through use of smart phone camera by using Omron connect app. This would make a non-bluetooth device also a connected device to your smart phone. The Bluetooth enabled BPM is the first of its kind in the industry, especially in the organised segment in India,” he stated.
Omron healthcare, which entered the Indian market in 2010 with its BP monitoring gadgets, is now looking to up the ante with products in the respiratory protection segment.
With the incidence of respiratory disorders on the rise in India due to increased pollution levels, it has fuelled a demand for nebulizers in the country.
“The respiratory devices care market is expected to grow in India. With pollution increasing, the demand for nebulisers is also growing. This segment is equally important. People know its utility now and the sales are going up. The company recorded CAGR of 10% in last five years in this segment,” he added.