Bisleri is amping up its D2C offering Bisleri@Doorstep, aims to expand its presence from the current 20 to 40 cities within the next few months

• For most brands functioning in the current situation, ensuring minimal impact on their supply chain is perhaps one of the biggest challenge today.
• Mineral water brand Bisleri is taking various steps to ensure it is able to take its products to its consumers by increasing its online presence and strengthening its D2C offering, Bisleri@Doorstep, Angelo George, CEO, Bisleri India tells us.

The country has been in the grips of the second wave of Covid-19 and the last few weeks have been difficult for most of us. It has also been challenging for retail brands to reach out to their consumers while most shops and malls are shut. However, in the last one year, we have seen many brands strengthen their supply chain capabilities and are now doing their best to deliver their products to consumers directly at home.

Bottled water brand Bisleri, which launched its direct-to-consumer website last year during the first lockdown has been seeing a steady increase in the number of people ordering mineral water, and even other products from its portfolio from its website, which is a huge behavior shift for the mineral water segment which has usually been a product people normally pick up from shops.

Identifying the potential that D2C can have in the future, Bisleri has been strengthening its offering. Its website has also become a great way of consumers discovering other products from its portfolio that includes drinks like Fonzo, Spyci and Limonata and its hand sanitizer sprays.

“Since last year, there has been a shift towards people buying even essentials online. As a result, we had launched Bisleri@Doorstep last year during the lockdown. In the last one year, and also during these last few weeks when Covid numbers have been going up, we have seen an increase in demand on our website. Our portal provides consumers an access to the whole range of Bisleri products which we deliver to their doorsteps. We currently operate in 20 cities, a number we are aiming to increase to 40 within the next few months,” shared Angelo George, CEO, Bisleri India.

The brand has also been partnering with a lot of delivery partners to increase accessibility. “Since the Covid numbers have been going up in April, we saw almost a doubling of demand on our website,” he added.

Making sure its supply chain doesn’t get impacted, which is one of the biggest challenges in this new world order, Bisleri is also working on taking its manufacturing facilities closer to the markets. “One of the bigger challenges today is ensuring minimal disruption to supply chain. We have a very well-dispersed manufacturing footprint which is a huge advantage in these times. Even though our products are essential services, there are impediments at times for the movement of staff and distribution vehicles which leads to a lot of liaisoning with the local regulatory bodies and law enforcement teams to ensure that our operations are not hampered,” he said.

There has been an obvious increase in at-home consumption of their water. Their bottles are now available in a range of sizes, from 5 litres to 20 litres, which George thinks works in the brand’s favor. “We are also reaching out to different channels like chemists, milk and even vegetable vendors in a big way because these are the shops that are allowed to remain open and sustain operations through the day in many cities,” he explained. Owing to the increase in demand online, there was a challenge of amping up the customer care team at the backend too. “Right now, the call volumes and distress complaints have been going up, so we have beefed up our customer care team significantly. And we are training them while the process is going on, in terms of inducting them into the system,” he added.

The brand had also recently come up with a campaign ‘Samajhdar Bisleri Peete Hain’ where the brand tried to tell consumers to be on the lookout for Bisleri lookalikes. Apart from this campaign, there were also some plans for the use of OOH which will now be on hold. On whether the current situation will impact their annual marketing plan, George said, “There are certain elements in the larger marketing plan that will need to be put on hold but everything else, which includes connecting with consumers, either through mass media or digital, will continue.”

On what his areas of focus would be for the next few months, he said, “One is about ensuring that we augment our capacities in all key locations. We will also focus on introducing more products in health and hygiene categories,” said George.

Considering many of its employees are working on-ground, the organization is making provisions to make sure they are safe. "Apart from the regular medical insurance, we have provided an additional Covid insurance for our employees and contract workers. In some cases, we have even housed our staff closer to the plants to reduce exposure. Processes are in place to ensure safety of our delivery staff because they are travelling and meeting consumers. We have given protective gears to all our staff, who frankly are Covid warriors and are also sanitizing vehicles after every trip,” he said.