If the move by the Central Railways proves successful, it will create a whole new channel of opportunities for cosmetics and personal care brands.
The Central Railways plans to sell cosmetic and beauty products inside the AC coaches of a select long-distance trains, according to media reports. The trains selected for this move are Chennai Express, Ernakulam-Hazrat Nizamuddin Duronto, and Konark Express. Cosmetics will be one of main consumer-targeted product categories besides small gadgets.
The Indian Railways is looking at this exercise as a pilot project, reportedly. If the move shows favourable results, the same will be replicated across the AC coaches of many other trains. The objective behind this move is said to be the Railway’s intention to grow its income from non-fare activities. A tendering exercise is being undertaken to invite bids from interested parties.
Opportunities for brands
Frequent travellers would recall that the Indian Railways had carried out a similar experiment a couple of years ago by selling luxury products in Rajdhani and Shatabdri trains. The on-board good sales inside the train coaches has traditionally been limited to cooked food and packaged food products. The new initiative by the Railways will expand the sales-basket to include small consumer products. If executed, the current plan will open up a new sales-channel creating fresh opportunities for cosmetics and personal care brands to take their products to various parts of the country.
A tried and tested model
The concept of on-bard sales has already been popular with air travel wherein customers can leisurely browse through a product menu and select the items they wish to buy. While there aren’t too many market estimates available for this phenomenon, according to the airline commerce platform technology solution provider Guestlogix, the total in-flight duty-free sales were estimated to be greater than $3 billion in 2015. The topmost popular in-flight items of consumption included skincare products, make-up kits, and perfumes. The other luxury goods that followed included jewellery, watches, alcohol and cigarettes.
A potential effect
If global trends are to be believed, BB creams, cream blushes, eyebrow pencils, lip balms, facial sprays, perfumes and deodorants are big hits amongst consumers who prefer making in-flight purchases during their long distance air travel.
The internal ambiance of AC coaches of the long distance trains can offer a setting similar to air travel. The coaches can also be suited to make leisurely purchases by passengers. Shopping may provide great relief for passengers against boredom and fatigue potentially caused by long-distance travel. Passengers can buy products they like in a relaxed manner too. The captive customer-base can prove a tempting opportunity for cosmetics and beauty product brands to push their premium and affordable products.
The small items sold inside the train compartments, has been a common sight in the city-based local trains from Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, etc. However, this activity has primarily been dominated by the unorganized sector without any quality-checks in place to curb counterfeits or low-standard cosmetic products.
With its fresh move, the Railways is bringing some order to this activity by roping in players from the organised market to sell reputed brands. Being a tender-driven activity with due diligence carried out by the Railways, consumers will be able to buy cosmetic products without worrying about the nuisance of fakes and low-quality products.