Recently, I've been turning my attention towards understanding the Indian market more. Here's why: India is slowly but surely proving that it's on its way to becoming one of the fastest growing markets in the world. A recent survey of e-commerce in India revealed that India's e-commerce market rose by a staggering 88% in 2013 alone. That translates to a growth of $ 16 billion mostly coming from online shopping trends. Data gathered from the aforementioned survey is thanks to 3500 responses from traders across India. To put this growth into perspective, India reached $ 2.5 billion in 2009 and reached $ 8.5 billion in 2012. Now that's quite an achievement if you ask me and a testament that India is steadily beating slow economic growth and inflation rates.
Not everyone finds numbers interesting and sometimes it isn't easy to derive meaning from numbers alone, but rest assured that when one sees such a drastic drop or rise in numbers as we've been seeing with the Indian market, then there's a lot happening under all that number crunching. I'm here to write about some factors I believe have played a significant role in making this rise possible.
It goes without saying that perhaps the most obvious reason for this success is the growing number of people who are actively using the internet. According to the same survey, India's internet base reaches upwards of 150 million users. This may only cover 10% of India's grand population, but it's been a good start for online retailers looking to scale up their businesses.
Having access to the internet is one thing; learning to trust it is a completely different hurdle. We've become a lot more dependent on the internet for things that we used to engage in the physical world for. Whether it's opting to chat on Facebook instead of call someone or read up on current affairs online instead of picking up a print newspaper, the internet has revolutionized the way we interact. Yet while it's easy to trust that our message will get through on a social media platform for instance, the same can't be readily said for making a financial transaction online and that is the biggest challenge that the e-commerce world faces with users in my opinion. However, online payment options are becoming more popular by the day in India and it seems that more than 50% of people aged between 26 and 35 are active online purchasers. The issue with trust also goes beyond payment methods and sharing sensitive financial information online. A lot of people express their concerns about whether or not the items they're ordering will be delivered in good condition and considering that tech products and accessories are among the most ordered, this is understandable.
What's been driving e-commerce even more in India are popular discount sites that offer coupons for major and minor merchants across the country. Following the example of Retailmenot.com, affiliate businesses like Coupon Nation, Flipit and Coupon Dunia are really hitting it off the right way with online shoppers looking to grab a worthwhile deal that will save them money. This has been an escalating trend in India, one that is catching on quickly judging by the number of deal websites that are coming in to the picture. So at the end of the day, shopping online has its quirks and perks, but the Indian market is definitely heading in the right direction.
Joanna Jaoudie, content editor and blogger for Flipit India
Orignal From: E-commerce in India: A Step in the Right Direction
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