Procter & Gamble Co. (also known as P&G) is intensifying its focus on ecommerce execution, digital content and artificial intelligence (AI) tools as it works to revive U.S. sales momentum following what executives described as the softest quarter of its fiscal year.
For its fiscal Q2 2026, P&G reported net sales of $22.21 billion, up about 1.5% from a year earlier.
While overall growth was modest, much of management’s discussion on the earnings call centered on how P&G plans to compete more effectively as more category growth shifts to online channels led by Amazon and other digital retailers.
Chief financial officer Andre Schulten said improving digital shelf execution — from product content and claims to how items appear and convert on retail websites — is now a top operational priority.
“The most urgent thing is to have the core brand show up as strong as possible on the landing page,” Schulten told analysts.
He emphasized that flagship items must win visibility in the first screens shoppers see online.
P&G ecommerce sales in Q2
CEO Shailesh Jejurikar said the company is being “very deliberate” about winning in fast-growing digital segments and channels. He pointed to markets such as India, where P&G’s ecommerce sales share is significantly higher than its offline retail share, as evidence of how online channels can reshape category dynamics when properly executed.
Executives also highlighted opportunities for premium products to perform well online, particularly in categories such as hair care and skin care, where consumers show a willingness to trade up in digital environments.
Jejurikar framed P&G’s longer-term strategy around connecting consumer data, product innovation, marketing and retail execution into a tighter system supported by technology.
He said the company has built a structured data lake “stocked with petabytes of relevant data,” along with AI-enabled tools for:
- Media creation
- Shelf optimization
- Supply chain systems that can respond more quickly to retail demand signals
The next phase, he said, is integrating those systems more fully across the organization so that consumer insight, product development, brand messaging and in-store and online execution work as a closed loop.
Jejurikar told analysts it will take 12 to 18 months for those capabilities to be more evenly deployed across the company. Some business units and regions will move faster than others, he added.
Sales trends in P&G’s fiscal Q2
P&G attributed much of the quarter’s softness to unusual base-period comparisons in the U.S. tied to pantry loading and elevated trade inventory in the prior year related to port strikes and hurricanes. The biggest impacts were in the Family Care, Baby Care and Feminine Care categories.
Outside the U.S., performance was stronger. Organic sales grew in most regions, with Latin America, parts of Europe and China showing more consistent momentum than North America.
Executives said they expect results to improve in the second half of the fiscal year as those base effects fade. Additionally, they expect product upgrades, sharper retail execution and innovative marketing approaches to take hold in the U.S.
Throughout the call, management linked future growth directly to how well P&G adapts to changes in how consumers shop and how retailers operate as both merchants and media platforms.
Jejurikar said P&G is adjusting its innovation approach to emphasize what he called a “stronger core and bigger, more” — meaning significant upgrades to flagship products, along with attention-grabbing innovations that can break through in crowded digital environments.
Schulten added that learning from smaller digital-native brands has helped P&G rethink how it presents products and ideas online, even as the company relies on its scale in supply chain, marketing and product development to compete.
P&G reaffirmed its full-year outlook for fiscal 2026, calling for organic sales growth in a range from flat to up 4% and core earnings per share growth in line to up 4%.
Executives said the path back to stronger growth depends less on price increases and more on attracting more users and driving higher usage — a shift they believe will be enabled by stronger product performance, better digital execution and more effective use of data and AI across the business.
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