yStats.com, a leading secondary market research organization based in Germany and specializing in E-Commerce and online payments, has published a new report titled “India B2C E-Commerce Market 2017”. The report cites over 20 different forecasts regarding the future of online retail in India and highlights the main drivers and barriers to growth. According to the findings of this report, India is projected to be the fastest growing among the top B2C E-Commerce markets in Asia through 2021.
B2C E-Commerce accounted for only a small one-digit percentage share of India’s total retail sales in 2016, as this report from yStats.com reveals. Nevertheless, India is already the fourth largest online retail market in Asia and is projected to outpace other regional leaders in terms of annual growth rate predicted through 2021. Although the demonetization reform of 2016 led to some moderation of growth expectations, they remain high due to the country’s largely untapped potential.
The adoption of mobile Internet technology by Millennials and in rural areas is one of the key drivers of India’s E-Commerce growth. According to projections cited in yStats.com’s report, Millennials will account for around one-third of the total population and over three-quarters of online shoppers in India by 2020. M-Commerce has already crossed the 50% mark in share of online retail sales and is projected to reach new heights in the next several years. Whether shopping on desktop or mobile, cash on delivery remains the leading payment method used by Indian consumers, though the share of mobile wallets such as Paytm is on the rise.
Amazon and Flipkart are the two leaders of the E-Commerce space in India, together accounting for more than two-thirds of online gross merchandise value in 2016, according to research findings cited in yStats.com’s report. Amazon has invested billions of dollars in its Indian marketplace, more than doubling its revenues in fiscal 2016. Flipkart also is supported by strong investment inflow, having raised over a billion dollars in the latest funding round from companies such as Microsoft, eBay and Tencent Holdings. Meanwhile, Tencent’s competitor in China, Alibaba, increased its investment in Paytm, thus emphasizing the growing importance of the Indian market.
