Trends and Future of E-Commerce Industry in India

Online shopping is here to stay and there is no doubt that the future looks very promising. In a recent report by Deloitte India and Retail Association of India says that the retail market in India is expected to grow to USD 1.2 trillion by 2021 from USD 795 billion in 2017. This is due to a significant increase in online shopping, Smartphone usage and internet penetration across semi-urban and rural segments. Currently, India’s e-commerce sites sales are dominated by baby supplies, toys, clothing, footwear, wearable and accessories, jewelry, watches, cosmetics,mobile phones, health products and digital entertainment and educational services. Other key factors like digital payments, hyper-local logistics, and analytics-driven customer engagement, are also responsible for the growth of the e-commerce industry in India. Trends that will impact e-commerce growth in India are discussed below.

The better mobile shopping experience

The better mobile shopping experience Studies show that traffic to online shopping sites from mobiles is 10 times greater than that on desktops. Mobile shoppers are very particular and should they experience the slightest glitch, customers will not hesitate to buy from the competition. Hence, to make it a seamless effort, utilizing visual content such as infographics and videos should be preferred over lengthy text.

Touch-based experience

Touch-based experience Touch-based product experience or augmented reality is the new ways a consumer can see and feel the product. By increasing the customer experience through these technologies, the customers’ experience enhances while making easier purchase decisions. This shall not only increase sales revenue but at the same time will allow the customers to explore various features of the products.

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Secure payment method

Secure payment method To complete a good shopping experience is to provide an easy payment gateway. The electronic payment has grown over the last decades due to improved secure online payment transactions. However, very unique to India is the cash-on-delivery payment method. However, the booming – e-commerce sector suffers from its over-reliance on cash payments. Factors like a delivery failure, accountability issues, and delay in returning the cash collected by courier companies are some of the discouraging factors for the e-commerce companies to look at other options. Currently, a new option like pay on delivery encourages customers to swipe the cards, for cash-on-delivery and is one of the new trends that we can see this year gaining momentum.

Personalization of the products

Personalization of the products India being a multicultural country, it’s quintessential to understand what works where. By personalization, customers can be easily segmented to understand their buying pattern. Customers today are expecting e-commerce companies to predict their buying pattern and make a suggestion for other products. This gives a huge opportunity as well as a potential for customized marketing and advertising. Currently, every e-commerce giant is working towards this trend and is likely to shift to tier-2 cities and rural areas as well.

Known hidden market

Known hidden market Thanks to the internet and smartphones, the tier-2 cities along with rural India are becoming the virgin territory for e-commerce giants. EY report on rural e-commerce: The untapped potential estimated that the rural e-tail market presents US$10b-US$12b opportunity for e-commerce firms in the next four years. This can be attributed to the rising household incomes leading to an increase in consumption of new products, expenditure, and diversified income sources from non-agricultural activities, positive agricultural outlook, increase in internet penetration, along with rising number of nuclear families in rural India. Factors that will play a crucial role include logistics, trust along with providing the right mix of products

Conclusion:

It’s crucial to stay abreast of the evolving digital trends to gain a competitive edge to acquire more consumers. In order to succeed in the fight and gain more customers, ecommerce industry will need people with expertise in digital marketing, analytics and data science, product management, supply chain and operations apart from thousands of on-ground delivery personnel. Ecommerce industry is creating jobs and needs a workforce, which is trained and ready to hit the ground running. The industry to striving to ensure that the customer gets the best experience and earn customer loyalty. We will wait to see how the future unfolds; till then happy shopping India!