Some interesting facts about ecommerce industry in india

Some interesting facts about eCommerce industry in India

In the recent times, eCommerce industry has seen a tremendous change in different aspects of nature of services, targeted customers, the range of products in a particular segment, conversion rates, and other such areas. E-Commerce may have entered late in India but it has picked up the momentum quickly. It has emerged as the hot favorite destination for eCommerce companies around the world due to the population of 1.25 billion people.

According to a joint study done by ASSOCHAM and Forrester, “The eCommerce revenue is expected to increase from $30 billion in 2016 to $120 billion in 2020 which is an annual growth of around 51%�. Another similar eCommerce study by Statista says that the number of product sales through online digital mediums have come around to be 16.08 billion US dollars for the year 2016 and is expected to grow by 45.17 billion dollars for the year 2021.

To have a quick look into the eCommerce market in India, here are the few snapshots for a detailed analysis for achieving better conversion rate optimization results.

- Flipkart, an eCommerce company in India reached the mark of 100 million users in the September month of the year 2016 but witnessed a fall of 38% in its overall valuation.

- The number of consumers who preferred to make an online purchase through smartphones has risen to around 83% and mobile shopping has become the favorite mode of online shopping among shoppers around the world.

- The eCommerce market is expected to touch the $48 billion mark by the end of the year

2020 due to the growing popularity among people.

- According to a study by Regalix, the age group of mobile users that perform mobile shopping varies in the age group of 25-34 years and account for 90% of the total mobile shoppers. This number, however, decreases with the mobile users in the age group of 18-24 years who do not spend much time on mobile shopping.

- The recent demonetization drive has affected the various business sectors including eCommerce which has witnessed a sharp decline in the COD (Cash on delivery) orders.

Online shopping behavior of customers decoded

Shoppers don't have much time to visit each and every shop for making a purchase and thus prefer the online medium in the form of an eCommerce store. This is because online shopping provides the comfort of home shopping, easy product delivery, quick price comparison facility and other such crucial features. As per the eCommerce report of Regalix, “Around 33% of the consumers shop online for at least once a month through the use of their mobile phones”. Similarly, a considerable amount of 28% people goes for shopping once in a week and another 25% shop once for every three months. While, only 14% of the people shop online once in a year.

The myth of women being more shopaholic is busted as men are more active as mobile shoppers as compared to women. The study done by Regalix shows that “Around 63% of men shop for at least once in a month online rather than the 44% women as compared”. This madness is attributed to the discounts and offers provided by various eCommerce companies to their customers. Additionally, online stores offer better pricing deals than their offline counterparts which led to the rise of eCommerce industry in India and higher conversion rates.

Another strong change that has been seen in the eCommerce industry can be attributed to the demonetization drive which has affected the eCommerce sales in a big way. However, eCommerce sites related to digital payment solutions are having a gala time with the prospect of India going towards a cashless society.

Flipkart emerged as the most favored eCommerce platform in India Amazon may be a global eCommerce giant but when it comes to India, Flipkart emerged as the real winner compared to the other rivals. According to a survey, “44% of the respondents said that they believed in shopping from the Flipkart rather than the rival company, Amazon

which is preferred by around 32% people. The other rival company, Snapdeal is favored by around 19% of the respondents for making an online purchase.

Further, two other eCommerce players in India namely Flipkart and Snapdeal have emerged as the most popular Indian eCommerce websites that are giving a tough fight to their American counterpart, Amazon.

E-Commerce platforms are a great tool for comparison

There are online shoppers in India that use mobile phones to browse products online on an eCommerce store and to make an online product purchase. The top three categories that emerged as winners during online browsing in an eCommerce environment are Gadgets and electronics, Clothing and Accessories coupled with home decor products. All these products are searched online but they are actually bought through offline stores.

Amongst these categories, clothing and accessories are one of the most popular eCommerce categories where shoppers prefer the offline method rather than the online mode. This can be attributed due to the comfort of real time trial before the actual product purchase. People usually perform the actions like price comparison, varieties available, and viewing product information in the online environment. As per a report, around 32% of the consumers agreed that competitive prices, special discount/offers, limited product variety, and other such components influence the offline purchasing decision of the customers. The presence of limited product stock in an online store also forces customers for going towards physical offline stores.

Another major turn off for offline shoppers is the constant fear of getting low-quality

products. Around 75% of the respondents involved in a survey informed that not getting high-quality products drives them away from the eCommerce sites. Their fears have stemmed from the fact that numerous customers have received faulty or defective products through online stores. Besides this, other factors like security-based concerns and poor product delivery services have emerged as certain reasons for the low conversion rate optimization efforts and product sales.

Conclusion However, there are other tools like heatmap and A/B testing that can help in the critical task of product comparison for your eCommerce site. While web analytics tools provide detailed customer information through heatmap features like click heatmap, scroll heatmap, mouse movement heatmap and other such components. The use of A/B testing tool is said to provide a better idea about the customer response in terms of conversion rates when two variants of product pricing are tested simultaneously. All the above scenarios can offer you a clear glimpse about the eCommerce business segment for achieving maximum conversion rates and sales. So, get prepared to sell your products/services at the earnest level for getting better business opportunities.