How eCommerce is Playing a Vital Role in Indian Economic Growth The colossal boom in Information Technology has given India new recognition all over the world. The talented, Englishspeaking IT professionals that are in India attract huge clientele from around the world. India is today an outsourcing hub because it has made a name for itself in providing the best solutions in any IT related job. Due to this, Indian economy is also booming. The kind of boom that Indian economy has seen in the last two decades has been the best in its 60 years of independence. One of the areas where Indian IT professionals have spearheaded their expertise is eCommerce services. When business is conducted with an electronic media like computer network and Internet, we call it eCommerce. With the growing use of Internet even in the interiors of the country, eCommerce is playing a vital role in Indian economic growth. According to Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) estimations, the eCommerce market in India is expected to see a growth of 47% by the end of 2012. With the expanding online travel industry and eshopping portals, there are more reasons to believe in IAMAI’s prediction. With favoring policies that has been liberating the Indian economy since 1990s, India has opened its market to foreign players in more than one way. Today, it has become easy for overseas players to enter the Indian market with the help of website services such as eCommerce stores. Recently, there was an interesting report in which IAMAI has said that there are 100 million Indians accessing the Internet at present. Though not all are regular users of the World Wide Web, even if 10% people use the Internet regularly, there is a lot of people using Internet. If predictions are to be believed, by the year 2014, India will lead the world in Internet usage. Looking at the positive growth rate of Internet usage in India and the predictions thereof, it is not surprising that businesses are focusing attention toward eCommerce services to get more buyers and customers. About half a decade back, Indians were introduced to eCommerce when Indian Railways and private airlines started selling their tickets online. Even though then the number of people using the Internet was less and mostly concentrated in the metropolitans, it surprised many industry experts to see the boom. Slowly companies like MakeMyTrip.com started showing a turnover of Rs. 1000 crores and other companies followed suit. Currently, more and more Indians even in the secondtier states of the country are using Internet to buy products and services. Website services such as hotel, flight, train reservations, banking, tax and bill payment, entertainment, matrimonial sites, job sites, etc. are attracting more and more people towards the Internet. Even those who avoided using the Internet saying that it wasn’t necessary, have started using eCommerce solutions and getting things of their interest delivered to their doorstep. Naturally when more and more people start using eCommerce solutions on a daytoday basis it has immediate and obvious benefit for the Indian economy. Entrepreneurs are able to see the light of the day and with very minimal investment they can start an eenterprise. Selling goods and services over the Internet is not only about convenience,
but also about the variety of options. Most second and third tier cities and towns of India are yet to see the retail boom, but when Internet facilitates them with so much option, there is hardly any need felt of these retail stores. Once the Indian government spreads broadband usage across the country, eCommerce services will add to more GDP every year. This is not a prediction, but a mere analysis of how things are fast moving forward.