8 Upcoming Trends in Indian e-Commerce Domain

The Indian e-Commerce market has bucked all the odds of an uncertain macro-economic environment and fast changing consumer preferences. In 2013, the Indian e-tailing market recorded a sequential growth of 88%, with transactions valued at $16 billion, according to a recent report by industry body, ASSOCHAM.

Growth of the Indian e-Commerce market is an outcome of increasing consumer accessibility to online shopping portals due to the growing mobile internet penetration in the country. Desktops, netbooks and laptops are getting a go-by in favour of light weight access devices like tablets and smartphones. Mobile internet is the new medium for access to online shopping sites, having gained popularity of late due to changing lifestyles and reduction in tariffs for 3G data plans by all leading telecom service providers. Thus, increasing screen size of smartphones and ‘phablets' available at affordable price-points, along with better reach of internet services has made online shopping accessible to an increasing number of Indians. Tablets too are growing at a rapid pace, which will further add to the base of connected devices for e-commerce.

In a marked shift from the older generation of shoppers, consumer behaviour has evolved from a preference for ‘touch and feel' buying to convenience and comfort. Electronic modes of payment like credit cards, debit cards, netbanking, EMI options and cash on delivery (COD), along with services such as free home delivery and onsite product replacements have added to the popularity of e-Commerce. India boasts a large population under the age of 35 years and a growing number of dual-income, nuclear households; this means e-commerce has good growth prospects.

In the short term, a subdued growth in ‘real' incomes along with high retail inflation have further made e-Commerce features like price parity, ‘deep' discounts, bundling schemes and special deals a strong attraction for consumers. Product information, product comparisons along with experiences / feedback from ‘certified' buyers help online shoppers make the final buying decision. Applications / plug-ins like ‘MakkhiChoose' help the user to discover the lowest price of a product across major e-Commerce portals in the matter of a few seconds.

In spite of odds of uncertainty with regard to product quality, transaction security, lack of ‘touch and feel', chances of delayed delivery and uncertain warranty conditions, the India e-Commerce market is poised to grow. e-tailing companies have become one of the favoured destinations for investors.

The India e-Commerce market is likely to follow some of the below-mentioned trends:

1. Emphasis on Social Media: ‘Stay Connected; Stay Relevant' is the mantra to success with mass online shoppers via popular social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube etc. Marketers have realised the importance of social media for discovering potential customers, converting them to clients or simply staying actively engaged with the current customer base by responding to their posts and sharing contents within limits of not being labelled spam. Product and service feedback via social media channels have an impressionable effect on the minds of the larger customer base.

2. Mobile is Everywhere: Mobile internet penetration will continue to grow along with the increasing base of smartphones and tablets. Affordable devices along with attractively priced internet data plans will continue to result in a rising base of potential shoppers. Smart marketers are expected to keenly follow the trend and make more and more offerings available to the expanding base of mobile internet subscribers.

3. ‘App' is necessary to stay in the game: Whether it's an Android, BlackBerry, iOS or Windows operating system based device, a common feature is the growth of apps. An ‘app' is the preferred route to deliver a ‘customised' shopping environment to online shoppers, thus obviating the need for a browser. Regular app updates, app accessibility and app security will need to be a priority for e-tailers.

4. Add security to transactions: Security of user information for payment transactions through the internet is one of the major concerns that hold back many potential online shoppers. With large scale adoption of mobile devices, e-Commerce payment systems must deploy updated, state-of-the-art transaction security solutions.