QNET is one of Asia’s leading e-commerce enabled direct selling companies offering a wide range of health, wellness, and lifestyle products. QNET’s business model pivoting upon technology and e-commerce has helped empower millions of entrepreneurs in more than 100 countries worldwide. In an interaction with Nischal C, Head of Corporate Communications, QNET, India Region about the company policy and future plans for a healthier lifestyle for its customers.
Please tell us about your company and India focus products.
Established in 1998, QNET is Asia’s leading e-commerce enabled direct selling company that offers a diverse range of health, wellness and lifestyle products through its proprietary e-commerce platform. Currently, QNET India has 15 brands and around 80 product offerings, with 75% ‘Made in India’ products. Our Nutriplus health and wellness range is mostly sourced through SMEs in India and includes a varied range of supplements like Immun Health, gut health, Diaba Health, bone Health, and Skin Health. This product category also comprises antioxidants, green and black teas, energy boosters, and superfoods like monofloral honey.
In the Home Care category, the popular product range includes My Home Plus range of products across water purifiers and Disinfectant Solution Generator, ORITSU Premium Porcelain Tableware, SHARP-QNET room air purifiers, and the Lifestyle products include Kinnari Royal Collection, and our limited edition watches, CHAIROS for the young fashion-conscious audience, are powered by Swiss and Japanese automatic and quartz movement. The BeYouTe product line is very popular in the Personal Care & Beauty segment.
In India, we have customers and distributors across almost all States, pursuing the QNET business opportunity as independent entrepreneurs. Most importantly, we support our distributors at the speed of business. We lay special focus on assisting them with an onboarding process, policy documents, and regular training programs to help them build their business. In recent years, Direct Selling has seen tremendous growth in India due to the flexibility it offers to those looking for self-employment opportunities. We believe QNET in India is well-positioned to tap into this trend with our high-quality products and our attractive compensation plan that has backed thousands of Indian micro-entrepreneurs build a successful business.
How is QNET supporting a healthy lifestyle?
As we all know that Covid-19 has intensely changed our lives, directly impacting our social and professional hemisphere. Over time, wellness has become an utmost priority for all of us and physical fitness is the need of the hour. Therefore, as a responsible organization, QNET has stepped up its focus on building a healthier lifestyle for its customers.
We have bolstered our Nutriplus range of health supplements with Immun Health, gut health, Daily Health, and Liv Health. It’s a range of products, targeted at improving specific aspects of bodily functions, making them part of your daily diet in a natural manner.
Also, we have observed a rise in demand for our Home Care products like SHARP-QNET SmartAir room air purifiers to combat indoor air pollution and My Home Plus Disinfectant Solution Generator (DSG)that are best-in-class products. These products have been particularly effective as most people have been confined indoors during the lockdown.
How have you been able to sail through the pandemic and how do you motivate the partners?
Undoubtedly, the initial months of the pandemic were challenging for the business as the market was slow and people were stuck behind the doors. However, we were aggressive from the onset and structured our business strategies to usher a positive change towards the evolving needs of customers. Thanks to the fact that the QNET business is primarily conducted on the e-commerce platform. Also, the past year has proved that the digital transformation could enable better collaboration between the organization and people all over during the time of the pandemic.
Our focus has always been to support our distributors by relying on innovative digital interventions. We conduct weekly virtual training programs for our distributors to help them understand our products and business model. We have made our business tools and marketing materials available as e-books and videos through our online content library. We were pleasantly surprised that our distributors seamlessly shifted and adapted to conduct their business virtually. Irrespective of the lockdowns, we have around 500,000 registered Distributors in India. The ‘digital’ push is on the rise, and we are making the best use of technology to conduct more webinars and online interactive sessions. In March 2021, QNET global organized its annual convention in a virtual format, which attracted record-breaking participation of nearly 350,000 distributors from over 50 countries.
What are the key opportunities that you see in this sector?
Direct Selling is one of the fastest-growing sectors despite the challenging times. Given the flexibility it lends in working patterns, the sector has continued to grow at a rapid pace, creating opportunities for those seeking a rewarding business proposition. The industry is diverse and continues to support various stakeholders involved in creating income and self-employment.
As per the recent World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) report, the Indian Direct selling industry has recorded sales of $3.19 billion in 2020 from the previous $2.47 billion of 2019. This goes to prove the industry’s immense growth potential in years to come with raising opportunities for individuals turning into gig workers.
Empowering entrepreneurs
Today, the direct selling industry is attracting many aspirants who are looking for an additional income and want to realize their start-up dreams. Owing to its flexible working hours, the sector also attracts homemakers and hence the sector boasts of a large percentage of its workforce as women. As per a report by FICCI-KPMG, 20 million individuals would be engaged in direct selling by 2025. Direct selling is a business that enables micro-entrepreneurship without the commitment of high initial capital and overhead costs.
Supporting vocal for local initiative
Nowadays, several international direct selling companies operating in India are focusing on self-sustainability. In India, the government’s initiative ‘Vocal for Local’ is encouraging Indians to buy more locally made products. Hence, the Direct Selling industry is encouraging the spirit of Aatmanirbharta. With this aspect, at QNET, we source our products locally to boost local manufacturing and entrepreneurship. We also ensure minimal environmental impact, while procuring our products. Our monofloral honey products are sourced naturally from forests in Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and we support local farming communities. Our Celestial range of green and black tea is sourced from Darjeeling from a single estate, ensuring consistency in quality.
Giving a boost to healthy social media selling
During Covid, social media selling is booming and has become a powerful medium for brands to engage and influence consumers. Given that direct selling is largely dependent on person-to-person connect, social media has immensely augmented the sector by ensuring continued connectivity and commerce in absence of in-person meetings.
What are the set goals for the near future for QNET India?
QNET will continue to innovate and adapt in line with its consumer’s tastes and preferences. We will also strive to follow sustainable practices by offering new, environment-friendly, and innovative products to our customers. MyHomePlus home care series of water purifiers are an important addition to our product portfolio. Here, the DELIGHT brand is built on Zero-water-wastage technology and the KNIGHT product features an advanced Reverse Osmosis technology for pure drinking water output, with an optional Kitchen Care feature providing sterilized water output to clean vegetables, fruits, utensils, etc. These water purifiers are backed with the world’s 1st patented IN & OUT STERILISATION technology, ensuring utmost hygiene. Through such lineups, QNET aims to revitalize and recreate a customer-friendly product portfolio, all for a better living.
The product portfolio offering India and planning up to the year 2024 / 2025 is undoubtedly based on our commitment to serving our customers with world-class health, wellness, and lifestyle products. Conceivably, the portfolio mix should conform to watches & Jewellery capturing 40% sales volume, Health & Wellness 20%, Home & Living 20%, and Personal Care &Beauty category touching 20%.