E-commerce in retail in India

Abstract

The e-commerce market in India has seen tremendous growth over the past 5 years and is slated to grow 5x by 2020. This growth will be driven by various parameters such as: 1. Rising internet penetration through rise of internet, broadband and mobile devices. 2. Changing lifestyles of consumers who want convenient shopping experiences. 3. Consumers migrating to higher order baskets through product categories such as apparel, electronics etc. Despite the growth, it is seen that close to 90% of the market is controlled by top 3 players: Amazon(~15%), Snapdeal(~32%) and Flipkart(~44%) and there is intense competition in terms of price, service and selection of products. Despite the rapid growth, there still remains huge section of untapped market that does not believe in buying products online as the traditional “look and feel of the product” as offered by offline stores is missing. Given this context, attempts to make the shopping experience enjoyable for the customer can be a huge driver of growth for the e-commerce players in the country. Hence, through this project, we have attempted to highlight how online multi-category online retailers can improve the buying experience on their respective websites.