Fast moving consumer goods move even faster in Q1

Kantar Worldpanel reported that total spending on fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) in China grew by 2.4 percent in the first quarter with strong performance of home and personal care items, while food segment suffered losses.

Non-food, especially personal care categories, maintained robust growth while the food and beverage sector reported a dip of 0.1 percent in terms of sales volume.

Sales through hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores grew only 0.4 percent with supermarkets outperforming the rest of the sector.

E-commerce maintained outstanding performance with a growth rate of 34.5 percent and made up about 14 percent of the total FMCG spend.

Sun Art, Vanguard Group and Walmart maintained their leading positions, representing a combined 20 percent of FMCG sales in the period.

Competition is moving to lower-tier cities as the market in the first and second tier cities becomes saturated.

After Pinduoduo's success in leveraging products through social networks, Alibaba and JD are following suit.