DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY OF HUL
1. HUL has a very wide outreach into many deep pockets of the country.
2. Hindustan Unilever has 6 million+ outlets across the country out of which
2 million are the retail outlets.
3. HUL also has 30 factories across the country which are further connected
to more than 2500+ stockists which again then reach the retail outlets
which are the convenience stores and the super markets.
4. To reach the rural sector HUL has various rural distributors which then
forward to the rural sub stockists to the rural retailers.
5. With the coming up of Carry and Forward agencies it has been able to
reach many deep pockets of the country with a significant cost reduction.
6. HUL works on go-to-market strategies to reach out each and every part of
the country with its varied types of a distribution channel.
7. By closely working with 2700+ redistribution stockists and shoppers
every day to maximise their sales HUL makes sure that whether it is a
small Kirana store or drug store or pops and mums store at a distant
location their product should reach to all these locations on time every
time.
8. In addition to its traditional line of trade, HUL established a relationship
through modern trade channels such as supermarkets and hypermarkets
and had its own e-commerce channel. It achieved deep, rural distribution
of its products through a network of more than 1,40,000 ‘Project Shakti’
entrepreneurs.
Manufacturer (HUL) to Retailers
9. HUL directly, without the involvement of distributors and sales
personnel. It introduced other features in the Shikhar app including
helping retailers to see nearby outlets and products that were in demand
in their locality.
10.The app allowed retailers to go through a wide catalogue of products
across HUL brands, and select the ones they needed.
11.Given the repository of data residing in the app, Shikhar was able to give
recommendations to the retailers on which products they needed to stock
to improve sales.
12.The Shikhar app is a smart retailer engagement tool with a user-friendly
interface that enables retailer self-service, customer engagement,
information transparency, product information, and convenient tracking
of orders.
13.They could also search for the products through voice command and get
notifications about the details of the orders, dispatch schedules, and
delivery time. It also had an additional feature called ShopKhata, which
enabled the retailers to maintain records of the goods sold on credit and
the amount received. Through ShopKhata, the shopkeepers could send
reminders to the customers about payments due as well.
14.The app helps in engaging the retailers through better connectivity. The
retailers can use it to communicate directly with the company and can see
the deals offered and the status of their orders. It also enables better
conversion of leads.
15. The Company Supplies directly to 35 Carry and Forwarding Agents
(CF&A). These CF&As regularly feeds the Re-Distribution stockists (RS) who
are next
in the hierarchy.
16.Product distributed through a Network of 7000+ Re-Distribution Stockists
(RS) Covering more that 1Millions retail outlets.
Entire Urban Population is directly covered by this Distribution network.
Project Shakti
extended to about 12 states, AP, UP, MP, TN, WB, Rajasthan, Maharashtra,
Punjab.
With the help of Women Self-help group (SHG).In cluster of small BPL
villages with population of 1000-2000.
Women are chosen as Shakti entrepreneur, They receive training and goods
from HUL and rural distributor respectively.
They sell products directly to consumers and retailers in villages.
Each Shakti entrepreneur serves 6-10 villages.
They receive goods on "cash and carry basis“.This is a major step from HUL for
women empowerment.
URBAN DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
The Carry and Forwarding Agent (C&FA) is supplied by The company's
production facility.
Either Rail or Road transport is used depending upon the time factor for
delivery and transportation cost.
Generally the factory location is such that it covers a large geographical
area.
..
From the Carry and Forward agent (C&FA) the goods are supplied to
Redistribution stockists. In this steps trucks are used.
The Redistribution stockist supplies the wholesaler.
The Wholesaler supplies to the retailer, here the local popular and cheap
mode of transport is generally used.
The retailer makes the product available to the customer.
RURAL DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
.
HUL approached rural market by two criteria :
Accessibility and Viability.
The company has brought all markets with populations of below
50,000 under one rural sales organization.
The team comprises an exclusive sales force and exclusive
redistribution stockists who is responsible business in particular
town.
The team focuses on building superior availability of products.
In the 25% of the accessible markets with low business potential,
HUL assigned a sub-stockist who was responsible to access all the
villages at least once in a fortnight and send stocks to those markets.
This sub-stockist distributes the company's products to outlets in
adjacent smaller villages using transportation suitable to
interconnecting roads, like cycles, scooters or the age-old bullock
cart.
In rural India, the network directly covers about 50,000 villages,
reaching more than 250 million rural consumers, through 6000 sub-
stockists.
Lately in 2000 they launched Project Shakti Self-Help Groups of rural
women
.
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