The increasing use of digital technologies in buying and selling merchandise for convenience and mobility pushed e-commerce in India to an inflexion point in 2016.
The rapid growth of smartphones and internet connectivity across the country, especially in tier-II and III cities, has given greater access to virtual shopping and e-tailing for the tech-savvy generation and millennials.
Even as e-tail behemoths Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon vied for a greater pie of the growing e-commerce market, enterprises and businesses in diverse sectors have joined the bandwagon to hard-sell their products by leveraging digital technology.
According to IANS, Tata CLiQ Chief Executive Officer Ashutosh Pandey said that e-commerce in India is at an inflexion point, thanks to robust growth in consumer demand. Mobile penetration and increasing use of smartphones have led to the emergence of m-commerce, which accounted for about 40 percent of the sector’s sales this year.
According to a study by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI), transition to mobile shopping is faster in India, which overtook the US this year in terms of active mobile users (220 million) and next only to China in user base. The emergence of the Omni-channel model in e-tailing has also enabled netizens shop across e-portals, websites, apps and in stores as per their convenience.
Though demonetisation has impacted the retail sector due to the cash crunch, digital transactions have enabled e-commerce firms to weather the crisis. Growing at about 40 percent cumulative average growth rate (CAGR), the country’s e-commerce market is projected to touch a whopping $38 billion this fiscal (2016-17), with the online travel segment alone accounting for 70 per cent, followed by e-tailing, financial services, classifieds, job searches and matrimony.
Global audit firm KMPG’s e-commerce partner Sreedhar Prasad said demonetisation had impacted the sector with a 30 per cent dip in sales and, as a result, the annual growth may not show a big spike.
