If you thought the Indian ecommerce boom has reached its peak, then you could not be further from the truth. The country will have 100 million online shoppers by 2016, according to the Google annual online shopping growth trends report released on Thursday.
By Nandagopal Rajan
The figure was 8 million in 2012 and is 35 million this year, showing how the ecommerce industry has grown. Incidentally, India is expect to cross 300 million Internet users by the end of the year overtaking the second largest web economy.
Google India MD Rajan Anandan said almost all the Internet growth in India is happening on mobile. “Mobile is driving growth in every single Internet product entity. In other markets Internet took off on the desktop, in India its happening on mobile,” he said underlining the need for creating different products for the users.
The survey, conducted in collaboration with Forrester Research, covered 6859 respondents across 50 cities using a mixed methodology format.
The key takeaways of the study are below:
The growth in coming years will come from Tier 1 as 71 per cent of respondents in this segment said they will buy online in next 12 months. In Tier 1, women buyers outspend men by 2x. And 1 in 4 women are buying on mobile.
In Tier 3, 1 out of 2 is already on mobile. This figure is just one out of 3 in Tier 1. Shopping queries from mobile has grown from 24 per cent in 2012 to 57 per cent in 2014.
By 2016 industry size will be close to $15 billion.
About 65 per cent people buy online for convenience and a similar number like the variety on offer. About 60 per cent think it is cool to shop online.
While electronics is a popular segment now, the growth areas are clearly home furnishing, cosmetics and baby care.