Category Update: Nappies/Diapers/Pants

Shifting market frontiers and significant global unmet potential

Despite significant pressures coming from changing demographics, pricing trends, and well as economic and political headwinds in a number of markets, the nappies/diapers/pants category continued to demonstrate positive growth in volume and value globally, with the core of the sizeable unmet potential of an estimated 300 billion units and growth coming from the developing markets, with Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa in the lead.

Pants –expanding frontiers but APAC still dominates

While in absolute value and volume, global sales of pants still trail behind open nappies/diapers, pants outpace open in terms of growth. While Asia Pacific remains the core market for diaper pants, innovation and brand development by key players, including the global leader Procter & Gamble, is taking the format into new territories, including MEA and Western Europe.

Premium vs affordable – markets move at different pace

Balancing premium and affordable is at the top of the industry agenda, especially in view of still rising material costs, the aggressive competitive environment and pricing pressures in retail – from online to the expanding discounters. The success of premium innovation is tied to each market’s conditions, income levels and key features consumers are willing to pay for. In the frontier markets with low per capita incomes, affordability tops the agenda and drives brand success, examples being Egypt and Nigeria.

E-commerce vs omnichannel

Online sales of nappies/diapers/pants continue to surge, with Asia Pacific ahead of other regions. Success in online retail comes at a cost to brands, as one of the top motivators for consumers to shift to online retail is the lowest prices. However, the majority of sales still happen in stores, even in fast growing e-commerce markets like China, thus opportunities in local markets for omnichannel strategies need to be explored.