Back in January, a Procter & Gamble spokesperson told The
Wall Street Journal that the consumer packaged goods giant was looking
at its new eStore (www.pgestore.com) pilot project as a "learning lab."
The eStore, which is owned and operated by the e-commerce provider PFSweb, launched with a test of 5,000 consumers and offers P&G brands at market competitive rates with a flat $5 shipping fee on all orders.
P&G has consistently maintained it is not looking to get into the retailing business but is looking to better understand the consumers who buy its brands. Only about $500 million of the company's roughly $79 billion in annual revenues comes from online channels and most of those come from e-tailers operating independently of P&G.
Kirk Perry, vice-president of P&G's North America operations, told the Financial Times the eStore "will help deliver new tools, services and features that can ultimately be shared with retailers."
Bob McDonald, CEO of P&G, told the Financial Times in an interview last year, "We want to maximize our sales through retailers but we also want to be where the consumer wants to shop."
More consumer packaged goods companies seem to be adopting the same view as Mr. McDonald. According to Mark McGuire,the president of Alice.com, about 50 brand manufacturers are currently having online storefronts being developed by his company. That is in addition to the 30 that are currently selling products directly to consumers through Alice.com.
"We are seeing a huge wave of these in the last few months, of consumer companies saying they want to go direct to consumers, and a lot of that is about what P&G is doing," Mr. McGuire told the Financial Times.
Discussion Question: What, if anything, does P&G's eStores and other manufacturer online ventures such as Alice.com mean for the future of consumer packaged goods sales to consumers?