Habitual use, steady preference of consumers for bath soaps, trend of premiumisation, strong distribution channel and introduction of various variants by the foremost players are the responsible growth factors for bath bar soap category within Indian personal wash market.    

Indian personal wash market consists of the products such as bath soaps, body wash & shower gel and liquid hand wash. The market is mainly driven by the bath soap category, whereas the body wash and shower gel is the fast expanding category in India. Also, the demand for liquid hand wash is progressively rising among Indian consumers. Bath soaps are traditionally used among Indian consumers for personal wash, which itself has a big market in India with huge penetration and strong competition. Indian consumers still prefer bath soaps where they have numerous options to choose their product according to their requirement. Herbal soap is the fastest growing category in the Indian soap market. Moreover, the premium and super premium soaps are gaining momentum among Indian urban consumers, whereas, mass and popular soaps are top selling products in rural market. Thus, the soap market enjoys the positive response of rural as well as urban consumers in India.

The aggressive advertizes continues to catch consumer attention towards the various bar soap products. Expansion advertizing along with the transforming newer ads with old ones is one kind of promotional activity of manufacturers that aims to increase the usage of a mature product like bar soaps. Indian soap market is highly fragmented and hence the brand loyalty is a major challenge for Indian soap manufacturers due to high frequency of purchase and availability of the numerous brands in the market.  Therefore, marketers are making every possible effort to build brand loyalty by communicating with consumers. The constant growth of soap market is attributed to the strong distribution network of manufacturers as these products have high reach in urban as well as in every rural part of India. From small kirana store to big retail stores to modern retail, bar soaps can be easily accessible. Moreover, innovation and introduction of new variants in the soap market will never let down the consumer demand for soaps in India as now Indian consumers, especially in urban area, want to keep updated themselves with the new products and trends related to them. Furthermore, buyers are gradually moving towards the premium bath soap products mainly due to changing preference towards ultra-benefit offering products and hence the premium soap segment is growing at a significant growth rate.   

 According to recently published report of Bonafide Research “India Personal Wash Market Outlook, 2021”, Personal wash products are expected to register more than 8.45% CAGR in the next five years. The personal wash market is full of innovative and newer products and variants. Mainstream of Indians rely on bar soaps for personal wash. Though body wash and shower gel products are gaining momentum in the market, the bar soap products will sustain the popularity as it is hard for millions of consumers to quick shift towards alternative products. Undoubtedly, liquid hand wash soap is entering in households and now it became a part of monthly product list. However, the consumption of liquid hand wash is still low in India. As a result, the body wash & shower gel and liquid hand wash categories have small proportion in personal wash market.      

According to Zalak Bhavsar, Research Analyst at Bonafide Research, "Despite high penetration levels, Indian bath bar soap market still offers good scope for growth due to high trust of consumers on soap products, new capacities, improved demand environment & continued distribution expansion of manufacturers and  good scope for premiumisation".

 Major companies operating in the personal wash market of India are Hindustan Unilever Limited, Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting, Godrej Consumer Products Limited, Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd., and ITC Limited.

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