Moving ahead with time, the Indian consumer is more aware of the choices he has. There has been a drastic shift in the shopping scenario in the country, with mall culture appeal, designer labels becoming available, and awareness regarding brands and quality.
India has the largest youth in the world, and that’s exactly the age of spending and experimenting. Online stores are being a great support for many consumers across the country.
But it’s not all that easy from the business front. There is a lot of competition in the country with a population of over 200 Million. Several online shopping sites are advertised on TV, there’s a lot of promotion and marketing. However, India is making it difficult for well-known international companies like eBay and Amazon to appeal to consumers.
Flipkart leads the e-commerce sector after hitting the $1 Billion GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) in March 2014, which was a pleasant surprise to the company owners Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. The company had set that target for 2015, the former Amazon employees understand the Indian consumers better.
But their issue still remains the low number of transacting consumers; it is only that which will lead any e-commerce business in India to make profits. Indians know India the best, Binny Bansal explains this; “We understand and have solved for these (logistics, tax, consumer mindset) uniquely Indian problems, and the kind of data we have with us today in terms of consumer preferences and market needs puts us way ahead of others, at least in the domestic ecosystem”.
India is a mouthwatering opportunity for e-commerce giants eBay and Amazon, however, both of the companies are struggling to make their mark. They are focusing on investing in these websites to have a piece of profit share; SnapDeal has received over $170 million from eBay. Walmart too is trying to enter the market slowly. The online market calls are going to be an exciting watch for business lovers.
There are many websites that are setting their mark, they are either focusing on a particular genre of shopping or providing the consumer with a larger array of products, some of the prominent ones are, Myntra, Jabong, Purplle, Baby Oye, Yebhi, Naap tol, Homeshop18, Fashion and you. While many of these do have a customer following, there is much improvement needed in the delivery system.
The catch of the scenario is, there are many returning Indians in the country, who want to have access to the products they used while being an NRI, they want the quality, and these websites are helping them do that. Also, everyday living in India is hectic, shift systems, and everyday cultural, religious, and family responsibilities make the people very busy to be able to get out in the traffic to get what they want, and it’s just simply easy to order online.
However, there is much improvement that can be done; sometimes ordering online is more stressful with the lack of professionalism from the website and heavy dependency on the courier services that have employed staff that isn’t professional or educated enough. There is no doubt about the scope, everything here takes time, but the Indian e-commerce scenario is only for strong-willed entrepreneurs.
Image Source: Shopping Online
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