ITC Classmate's move to link notebooks with digital learning resurfaces as it broadens omnichannel reach
Resurfacing a June 2025 initiative, Classmate is using QR-enabled eduGAMES Infinity content, product adjacencies and distribution across retail, e-commerce, quick commerce, D2C and schools to defend relevance as learning digitises.
What happened
ITC’s Classmate is expanding beyond notebooks through QR-enabled learning games, stationery adjacencies and omnichannel distribution across general trade,
Key facts
- Classmate launched in 2003
- Indian paper-based stationery market: Rs 16,500 crore
- ITC FMCG FY25 revenue: Rs 219,81 crore
- Classmate consumer spends: over Rs 1,000 crore
- eduGAMES Infinity offers 11 interactive challenges
Why this matters
Classmate’s ecosystem strategy creates partnership opportunities with edtech providers, schools, learning-content creators and commerce platforms that can expand digital engagement without requiring the brand to build every capability in-house.
What to watch
- Evidence of QR scan rates, repeat-session rates and content completion rather than merely QR-enabled pack rollout.
- School partnerships, curriculum tie-ups, teacher-facing tools or edtech integrations that move the proposition from consumer novelty to institutional adoption.
- Growth in quick-commerce stationery assortment and delivery promotions during school reopening periods.
- New Classmate D2C loyalty, registration or subscription initiatives indicating an effort to monetize first-party data.
- Competitor responses from stationery brands through lower prices, licensed educational content, sustainable materials or comparable QR-linked experiences.
- Changes in marketplace discounting and channel conflict that indicate omnichannel reach is eroding realized prices.
- Refresh QR content frequently and align it to grade-specific curricula, exams and regional languages rather than treating it as a one-time gamification feature.
- Use QR registrations to build consented first-party audiences for replenishment reminders, back-to-school bundles and cross-selling of writing instruments, art materials and learning products.
- Create differentiated channel roles: discovery and assortment on D2C, urgency fulfilment on quick commerce, scale on marketplaces, and trust-building activations through schools and physical retail.
- Protect price architecture by reserving premium digital content, bundles or school-linked benefits for higher-margin SKUs rather than applying QR costs across the full notebook portfolio.
- Measure scan-to-engagement, repeat use, repurchase, basket attachment and incremental willingness to pay to determine whether digital engagement is commercially additive.