E-commerce in India

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India has an Internet user base of about 696.77million as of May 2020, about 40% of the population.[1] Despite being the second-largest user base in world, only behind China (650 million, 48% of population), the penetration of e-commerce is low compared to markets like the United States (266 million, 84%), or France (54 M, 81%), but is growing, adding around 6 million new entrants every month.[2] The industry consensus is that growth is at an inflection point.[3]

In India, cash on delivery is the most preferred payment method, accumulating 75% of the e-retail activities.[4] Demand for international consumer products (including long-tail items) is growing faster than in-country supply from authorised distributors and e-commerce offerings. Long tail business strategy allows companies to realize significant profits by selling low volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers, instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items. The term was first coined in 2004 by Chris Anderson.[5]

In 2017, the largest e-commerce companies in India were Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon.[6] In 2018, Amazon beat Flipkart and was recorded the biggest ecommerce in India in terms of revenue.[7]

Market size and growth[edit]

India's e-commerce market was worth about $3.9 billion in 2009. As per "India Goes Digital",[8] a report by Avendus Capital, the Indian e-commerce market is estimated at ₹28,500 Crore ($6.3 billion) for the year 2011. Online travel constitutes a sizable portion (87%) of this market today. Online travel market in India had a growth rate of 22% over the next 4 years and reach ₹54,800 crore ($12.2 billion) in size by 2015. Indian e-tailing industry is estimated at ₹3,600 crore (US$800 million) in 2011 and estimated to grow to ₹53,000 crore ($11.8 billion) in 2015. The market went up to $12.6 billion in 2013. In 2013, the e-retail segment was worth US$2.3 billion. About 79% of India's e-commerce market was travel related in 2013.[9] According to Google India, there were 35 million online shoppers in India in 2014 Q1 and was expected to cross 100 million mark by end of year 2016.[10]

CAGR vis-à-vis a global growth rate of 8–10%. Electronics and Apparel are the biggest categories in terms of sales. Overall e-commerce market had reached ₹1,07,800 crores (US$24 billion) by the year 2015 with both online travel and e-tailing contributing equally. Another big segment in e-commerce is mobile/DTH recharge with nearly 1 million transactions daily by operator websites.[11] Year 2016 also saw online sales of luxury products like jewellery also increased. Most of the retail brands have also started entering into the market and they expect at least 20% sales through online in next 2–3 years.[12] According to Google India Research in 2016, by 2021 India is expected to generate $100 billion online retail revenue out of which $35 billion will be through fashion e-commerce.[13]

The ecommerce industry was reported at $24 billion in 2017 and was recognised as the fastest growing industry in India.[14] The ecommerce market grew to $38.5 billion in 2018.[15] It is estimated that one in every three Indian shops via smartphone and online retailers deliver to 20,000 pin-codes out of the 100,000 pin-codes in India.[16] As per Goldman Sach, India's e-commerce industry will reach $99 billion in size while online retail is expected to more than double to around 11% by 2024 from 4.7% in 2019 while increasing at 27% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). The online grocery segment that is below $2 billion will reach $29 billion in size by 2024. Online grocery orders will grow from 3,00,000 per day in 2019 to more than 5 million per day by 2024. Non grocery eCommerce penetration will be 16.1 percent by 2021.[17][18]

As per property consultant Colliers International, the demand for warehousing of 5,000 to 10,000 square feet size will increase due to COVID-19 lock-downs which lead to a surge in online orders of essential items for same day delivery especially in tier-1 cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai and New Delhi.[19] Flipkart will debut a hyperlocal service called Flipkart Quick in Bengaluru to start 90 minutes deliveries.[20] Amazon observed spike in page views with four times increase in “Add to Cart” during the lockdown, leading to doubling of sales. It also started selling auto insurance in partnership with Acko General Insurance which is available to users through Amazon app and mobile website.[21][22] With opening of 10 new warehouse, the count of Amazon warehouse in India stands at 60 across 15 states that has an area equivalent to more than 100 football fields.[23]

Report from software as a service (SaaS) provider Unicommerce shows increasing penetration of e-commerce beyond tier-1 cities with major growth coming from tier-2 and tier-3 towns/villages due to increasing vernacular language content[24] and improving last mile delivery. Consumers are also diversifying their purchasing option from large scale e-commerce channels like Amazon or Flipkart to specific retail brand websites.[25] As per Goldman Sachs, three or four players can co-exist in the e-commerce space given the size of India but travel, food delivery, ride-hailing services will see a maximum of two players capturing the market. Reliance Jio will increase competition in grocery, fintech, online retail, food delivery.[26] From February 2020 to June 2020 during the Covid19 lock-down period, e-commerce increased by 117% with the delivery of only essential supplies that is now bigger than the pre-Covid19 level. Flipkart surpassed 1.5 billion visits per month with 45% growth in monthly active user while 30% growth in transaction per consumer. Tier-3 markets are showing 53% year on year growth with higher internet penetration and connectivity.[27] Kinetic Green started selling electric auto rickshaw and golf carts online mainly in eastern and northern parts of India with a revenue of ₹75 crore in 2019 which now stands at ₹100 crore as of August 2020.[28] E-commerce helped Nestlé increase sales at a rate of 122% which contributes to 3.6% of overall sales during Q2 of 2020-21.[29] Apple Inc. is opening online channel to sell products in India for the first time during August 2020 to target the festival seasons.[30]

Closures[edit]

Though the sector has witnessed tremendous growth and is expected to grow, many e-commerce ventures have faced tremendous pressure to ensure cash flows. But it has not worked out for all the e-commerce websites. Many of them like Dhingana, IndiaPlaza.in, eBay-India, Rock.in, Seventy MM amongst others had to close down[31] or change their business models to survive.[32] In March 2020, the Government of India restricted online sales of all goods except for critical items including food, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment. Many Indian startups including Urban Company, BookMyShow, Pepperfry and Nykaa, which do not feature in the government’s list of notified essential services, are running at a loss due to COVID-19 pandemic.[33][34]

Collaborations[edit]

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian government issued a directive to stop delivery of non-essential items by e-commerce platforms.[35] This led to many e-commerce platforms to collaborate and sell essential goods. For e.g. Myntra partnered with Wildcraft to sell protective face masks.[36] McCoy Mart partnered with Rossari Biotech Ltd to sell hand sanitizers. Flipkart partnered with Uber for last mile delivery of essentials to its customers.[37]

Infrastructure[edit]

There are many hosting companies working in India, some of which offer SaaS for hosting web stores. India has got its own version of Cyber Monday known as Great Online Shopping Festival which started in December 2012, when Google India partnered with e-commerce companies including Flipkart, HomeShop18, Snapdeal, Indiatimes shopping and Makemytrip. "Cyber Monday" is a term coined in the US for the Monday coming after Black Friday, which is the Friday after Thanksgiving Day.[38] Most recent GOSF Great Online Shopping Festival was held during Dec, 2018.

In early June 2013, Amazon.com launched their Amazon India marketplace without any marketing campaigns. In July 2014, Amazon had said it will invest $2 billion (Rs 12,000 crore) in India to expand the business, after its largest Indian rival, Flipkart announced $1 billion in funding. In June 2016, Amazon agreed to invest another $3 billion to further pressure rivals Flipkart & Snapdeal[39] Amazon has also entered grocery segment with its Kirana now in Bangalore and is also planning to enter in various other cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and faces stiff competition with Indian startups.[40] A large proportion of traffic towards e-commerce sites is driven by coupon sites.[41]

Funding[edit]

Examples of venture capital firms having invested in e-commerce companies in India are as follows: Flipkart.com raised about USD 2.3 billion.[42] On 10 July 2013, Flipkart announced it had received $200 million from existing investors Tiger Global, Naspers, Accel Partners, and ICONIQ Capital, and an additional $160 million from Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Sofina, Vulcan Inc. and more from Tiger Global.[43]

In February 2014, online fashion retailer Myntra.com raised $50 million from a group of investors led by Premji Invest, the investment company floated by Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro. May 2014 also witnessed an acquisition of Myntra by Flipkart reportedly for ₹2,000 crores.[44]

In September 2015, PepperTap raised $36 million from Snapdeal and others.[45]

In July 2020, Purplle raised $30 million from Goldman Sachs and others.[46]

In January 2021, B2B Udaan has raised $280 million from new investors Moonstone Capital Partners and Octahedron Capital, besides existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global, GGV Capital, Altimeter Capital and Tencent Holdings.[47]

Niche retailers[edit]

The spread of e-commerce has led to the rise of several niche players who largely specialize their products around a specific theme. As many as 1,06,086 websites are registered daily and more than 25% are for niche businesses.[48]

During 2014, Royal Enfield sold 200 bikes of special series Online.[49]

Online apparel is one of the more popular verticals, which along with computers and consumer electronics make up 42% of the total retail e-commerce sales.[50] Niche online merchandising brands like Headbanger's Merch, Redwolf and No Nasties partner with and even help sustain independent musicians.[51] Some established brands like Arvind are now creating clothing lines just for the e-commerce markets.[52] Some of the bigger online retailer like VoxPop Clothing have secured multiple rounds of funding, the last round raising $1 million from Blume Ventures in 2014.[53]

As these niche businesses get popular, they are slowly getting acquired by the big players. BabyOye was acquired by Mahindra Retail, part of the $17 billion Mahindra Group.[54] Ekstop was acquired by the Godrej Group to complement their offline chain of Nature's Basket stores.[55]

Mergers and acquisitions[edit]

According to a report by Grant Thronton, as much as US$2.1 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions were inked in 2017 in the booming Indian e-commerce industry.[56] Here is the list of Mergers & Acquisitions which happened in India over a period of time:

Mergers & Acquisitions in Indian E-commerce Market
Date Merger/Acquisition Companies Involved Cost Refs
May 2014 Acquisition Flipkart acquires Myntra US$300 million
March 2015 Acquisition Snapdeal acquires Unicommerce Undisclosed [57][58]
April 2015 Acquisition Snapdeal acquires FreeCharge US$400 million [59]
April 2016 Acquisition Flipkart acquires PhonePe Undisclosed [60][61]
June 2016 Acquisition Myntra (owned by Flipkart) acquires Jabong US$70 million [62]
July 2017 Acquisition Axis Bank acquires FreeCharge US$60 million [63]
May 2018 Acquisition Walmart acquires Flipkart US$16 billion [64]
January 2020 Acquisition Zomato acquires Uber Eats US$350 million [65]

Regulation[edit]

Foreign e-commerce is subject to regulations in India; under local law, foreign companies are to serve solely as marketplaces between vendors and their customers, and are forbidden from holding inventory in the country. Under new regulations effective 1 February 2019, foreign companies will be forbidden from selling any products from vendors that they control or have equity stakes in, and it is forbidden to enter into exclusivity deals between vendors and websites. This regulation is seen as a counter to Amazon and Walmart's influence on the market, which have given smaller traders a disadvantage in the market.[66][67][68]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ "For the first time, India has more rural net users than urban". timesofindia. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  2. ↑ "Online shoppers in India". timesofindia.indiatimes/tech. 20 November 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Indian e-commerce at inflection point?". Vccircle.com. 19 August 2010. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
  4. ↑ "In COD we trust". translatemedia.com. 6 February 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  5. ↑ Hayes, Adam. "Understanding Long Tails". Investopedia. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  6. ↑ "Amazon India reportedly closing in on Flipkart". The Economic Times. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  7. ↑ "Amazon beats Flipkart to become India's largest ecommerce company by gross sales". www.timesnownews.com. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  8. ↑ "404" (PDF). Retrieved 4 May 2016. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  9. ↑ Evolution of e-commerce in India, PwC, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Online shoppers in India to cross 100 million by 2016: Study". The Times of India. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  11. ↑ "Freecharge Aims to Achieve 7 Million Transactions Per Day". Telecom Talk. 17 February 2016.
  12. ↑ "CaratLane in talks with US-based online stores for acquisition". Economic Times. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  13. ↑ PTI. "India's fashion e-retail market to touch $35 bn by 2020: Google". Mint. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  14. ↑ "Indian e-commerce market to touch USD 84 billion in 2021: Report". The Economic Times. 26 February 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  15. ↑ Market, Capital (17 December 2018). "E-Commerce Market growing at a rate of about 17% in 2018-19". Business Standard India. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  16. ↑ "Indian Ecommerce Industry Analysis | IBEF". www.ibef.org. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  17. ↑ Network, The Statesman/Asia News (23 July 2020). "India e-commerce to grow 27%; Reliance to capture half of online grocery sales—Goldman". INQUIRER.net. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  18. ↑ "India's e-commerce industry to be $99 billion in size by 2024; RIL to dominate online grocery space". www.businesstoday.in. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  19. ↑ "In-city warehousing demand may rise as e-commerce firms target same-day delivery". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  20. ↑ "Walmart's Flipkart to offer 90-minute deliveries in India". Reuters. 28 July 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  21. ↑ Patil, Kiran (3 August 2020). "How To Tap Into Rising Opportunities In Grocery E-commerce?". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  22. ↑ July 27, Danielle Ling |; PM, 2020 at 01:00. "Amazon is now selling auto insurance in India". PropertyCasualty360. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  23. ↑ "Amazon to open 10 new India warehouses; offers insurance". Reuters. 23 July 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  24. ↑ "E-commerce big winner: This is the reach of online retail in India's hinterland, read details - OrissaPOST". Odisha News, Odisha Latest news, Odisha Daily - OrissaPOST. 23 August 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  25. ↑ "Report highlights e-commerce is big in India's hinterland". Zee Business. 22 August 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  26. ↑ "Amazon, Flipkart, others may have more fierce competitors ahead after Reliance in e-commerce, grocery". The Financial Express. 23 August 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  27. ↑ "India's e-commerce is now even bigger than pre-COVID – smaller cities add to the bounty while metros continue to lead". Business Insider. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  28. ↑ Aug 14, Satyanarayan Iyer / TNN /; 2020; Ist, 04:56. "Kinetic Green looks to e-commerce, home delivery to grow in Covid times - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 August 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  29. ↑ "E-commerce sales of Nestlé India more than double in Q2; eight factories restored to pre-Covid levels". The Financial Express. 28 July 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  30. ↑ "Apple to open India online store in September: Bloomberg News". Reuters. 25 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  31. ↑ "Discounts backfire; many e-com ventures shut shop". Business Standard. 26 February 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  32. ↑ "Latest e-commerce shut downs and acquisitions in India". 17 May 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  33. ↑ Gooptu, Biswarup (31 March 2020). "Vertical ecom majors like Pepperfry, Nykaa feel the squeeze post Covid-19 outbreak". The Economic Times.
  34. ↑ Bhattacharya, Ananya (30 March 2020). "Coronavirus will sink a lot of small e-commerce companies in India". scroll.in.
  35. ↑ "Amazon, Flipkart cannot deliver non-essential items like mobile phones, TVs during lockdown". Business Insider. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  36. ↑ www.ETRetail.com. "- ET Retail". ETRetail.com. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  37. ↑ www.ETRetail.com. "Flipkart SmartBuy launches medical essentials - ET Retail". ETRetail.com. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  38. ↑ "Google partners e-commerce sites for 'Cyber Monday' on December 12". Economic Times. 4 December 2012. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  39. ↑ "Amazon plans $3 billion investment in India to challenge Flipkart, Snapdeal". CNBC. 25 June 2016.
  40. ↑ "E – Commerce and its evolution in India | Devmantra". Archived from the original on 25 March 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  41. ↑ Gore, Dipti. "Coupon, offers and deal listing website CouponChaska.com promises to get you the best deal!". TechStory. TechStory Media Pvt. Ltd. (India). Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  42. ↑ "Fund-raise values Flipkart at $10 billion". Times of India. 24 November 2014.
  43. ↑ "Flipkart raises $160M more from Morgan Stanley, Vulcan Capital, Tiger Global, others". VCCIRCLE.
  44. ↑ "Flipkart acquires Myntra". The Times of India. 22 May 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  45. ↑ "PepperTap raises $36 million in fresh round of funding, led by Snapdeal". The Economic Times. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  46. ↑ Srivats, K. R. "Online beauty platform Purplle raises $30 m in Series-C round". @businessline. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  47. ↑ "Udaan raises $280 mn from new and existing investors". Livemint. 6 January 2021.
  48. ↑ "E-commerce: Niche online ventures going where biggies of Amazon, Flipkart can't". The Financial Express. 28 April 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  49. ↑ "Royal Enfield's 'Despatch' sold out in 26 minutes". The Hindu. 15 July 2015. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  50. ↑ "Assocham India". Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  51. ↑ "Sahil Makhija: "At some point, a T-shirt will always outweigh a CD"". Rolling Stone India. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  52. ↑ Suneera Tandon. "Arvind lines up select brands for online retail". Mint. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  53. ↑ "VoxPop Clothing raises $1 million to expand portfolio with higher margins". timesofindia-economictimes. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  54. ↑ "Mahindra Retail to integrate e-commerce business to single platform". economictimes-indiatimes. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  55. ↑ Sapna Agarwal. "Godrej Nature's Basket buys online grocer Ekstop.com". Mint. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  56. ↑ "Indian e-commerce market sees M&A deals worth $2.1 billion in 2017". The Financial Express. 6 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  57. ↑ "Snapdeal buys e-commerce management firm Unicommerce". Live Mint. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  58. ↑ "Snapdeal Acquires Unicommerce". Inc42. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  59. ↑ "Snapdeal buys Freecharge for $400m - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  60. ↑ Chathurvedula, Sadhana (1 April 2016). "Flipkart acquires UPI-based payments start-up PhonePe". livemint.com/. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  61. ↑ Chanchani, Madhav (4 April 2016). "Flipkart acquires former executive's startup PhonePe for payments push". The Economic Times. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  62. ↑ "Flipkart-owned Myntra acquires Jabong for $70 mn - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  63. ↑ Variyar, Mugdha (27 July 2017). "Axis Bank acquires FreeCharge for Rs 385 crore". The Economic Times. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  64. ↑ "What Walmart's Flipkart acquisition means for India, consumers and its arch-rival Amazon". Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  65. ↑ "Zomato acquires Uber Eats for Rs 2,485 crore". Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  66. ↑ "Amazon and Flipkart face uncertainty as India readies new rules for foreign ecommerce companies". VentureBeat. 31 January 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  67. ↑ "New India E-Commerce Rule Undermines Expansion of Foreign Companies Like Amazon and Walmart". Fortune. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  68. ↑ "New e-commerce rules in India may hit Amazon and Flipkart". The Straits Times. 28 December 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
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