Although India ranks behind Asia-Pacific’s largest online retail markets in terms of sales as of 2018, it is projected to maintain the highest double-digit growth rate through 2022. The portion of Internet users making online purchases is projected to increase to more than 50% by 2026. Thanks to the rapid expansion between 2016 and 2021, India’s share of global B2C E-Commerce is expected to nearly double. It may potentially even outpace Australia in the fourth rank in annual online retail sales in the Asia-Pacific region as soon as 2019, after China, Japan and South Korea.
Online travel remains the largest E-Commerce service category, accounting for nearly 50% of digital spending in India last year. The largest online sales in the travel segment are generated by booking of air and railway tickets. More growth is also expected in online food and groceries delivery services, driven by increasing interest in the sector by the main E-Commerce players such as Amazon, Flipkart and Walmart. India is also experiencing a massive rise in adoption of the mobile Internet in both rural and urban areas. In terms of physical goods E-Commerce sales, the leading product category is mobile phones and accessories.
After the demonetization reform in India in 2016, the dependence on cash in E-Commerce transactions has been reduced. Nearly a half of urban online shoppers surveyed in late 2017 had abandoned cash on delivery and found an alternative among the online payment methods. Moreover, most shoppers have promoted cashless payments among their friends and families. Digital and mobile wallets became increasingly popular, including Paytm, MobilKwik and PayU.
Finally, India has the second largest population in the world, a growing share of which are tech-savvy millennials, who are projected to further boost the development of B2C E-Commerce in India.
Find the full report under “India B2C E-Commerce Market 2018”.
