Analysis of how India can beat the U.S as the world’s largest eCommerce market

Analysis of how India can beat the US as the world's largest eCommerce market

With the changing business landscape and busy lifestyles, more and more people are now moving towards online shopping due to the ease of product availability, product delivery at the doorstep, online payment facility and other such benefits. With this trend, eCommerce is fast growing and is expanding into unknown global territories for offering quick shopping experience. Countries like China, US and India are some of the world's biggest economies that have embraced the eCommerce market in a big way.

Among all these countries, the Indian economy has emerged as the lucrative and most promising market for eCommerce companies in the years to come. The above situation has arisen due to the number of reasons like young demographic population, increased use of broadband internet services, the rise of mobile-based devices and a number of other such factors. All these reasons have made India emerge ahead among countries like the USA when it comes to eCommerce market and conversion rate optimization results. According to a joint report of ASSOCHAM-Forrester study paper, the Indian eCommerce revenue is expected to grow from $30 billion in the year 2016 to $120 billion in the year 2020, which is supposed to be an annual rate of 51%, the highest in the world.

Where does India stands in terms of eCommerce growth and internet users?

The Indian market may be lower in the base when compared to China and other countries such as Japan but the growth rate is much ahead of others. The rate of eCommerce growth in various countries of the world is as follows. China is growing at the rate of 18%, Japan is currently growing at 11%, South Korea is moving ahead with a 10% growth but all these economies does not stand anywhere when compared to the annual expansion rate of India at 51%.

Additionally, India is ahead of countries like Brazil and Russia under BRICS organization in terms of internet users with 25 million of Internet users being added every year. India has an

internet user base of 400 million when compared with the 210 million internet users in Brazil and 130 million internet users in Russia for the year 2016. Apart from this, around 75% of online users in India fall into the age group of 15-34 years due to the young Indian population.

As per the statement of D S Rawat, ASSOCHAM Secretary General, "This is expected to be a continuing trend in coming years, given the age distribution in India". In this way, the eCommerce stores have also registered growth in the various categories that are dedicated to the young population in the last one year. Further, these young online shoppers come under the age group of 15-24 years representing both males and females.

What are the areas in eCommerce business that are going to be affected?

With the higher reach of the internet and mobile services, people are doing more and more browsing related activities on their mobiles and smartphones instead of desktop/laptop devices. This has led to a significant growth in the online travel category consisting of the various services like car rentals, airlines, hotels, travel review and other information sites.

Moreover, the top 10 traveling sites in the travel category consist of a combination of travel options as well as information. There are multiple online users that are trying to gather information on travel options on a regular basis and end up coming to the Indian Railways site.

Further, the retail category has seen an increase of 65 million unique visitors per month that annually contributes to a growth of 55%. This can be seen in all the retail categories that show promising transactions and conversion rates along with the increase in site visitors.

Besides this, apparel business has emerged as the fastest growing subcategory in the retail business and has witnessed 24% online users. With this growth, it is time to take the help of eCommerce mobile app extensions that can help in transforming your PrestaShop and OpenCart sites into respective mobile apps for grabbing maximum revenue sales.

What are the things that are working in the favor of India?

With the increase in the internet users around the world, use of mobile devices, favorable demographics, increased use of online payments and a range of other factors, eCommerce

business in India is expected to grow effectively. There are various segments like branded apparel, accessories, jewelry, gifts, footwear and other segments that are the key items in the eCommerce shopping which are quickly moving on the mobile phone applications.

Mobile phones are actively used for making eCommerce sales that form around 60-65 percent of the total sales generated by various eCommerce companies in India. It is believed that m-commerce can help in contributing up to 70 percent as eCommerce revenues in this ever-growing eCommerce market. According to the statement of Ron Kalifa, Vice Chairman at Worldpay, a global payment firm, "The market is predicted to reach $63.7 billion by 2020 and overtake the US by 2034. This enormous development, will in turn open up enormous opportunities for companies who sell online." He further stated that "Leading companies such as Amazon and Alibaba are already making their move, indicating a clear incentive for merchants to gain their foothold within India's budding eCommerce market as soon as possible."

The eCommerce market report of Worldpay also highlighted some of the critical points that are discussed below: - The eCommerce growth in India will be driven by the increasing internet users which are roughly around 350 million in number. The strength is expected to be nearly doubled as 600 million by the year 2020.

- The number of mobile phone shipments in India has risen to a great extent in the past few years. Currently, India is the biggest consumer of mobile phones around the world having data plans two times cheaper as compared to China and three times cheaper than the United States.

- With the maximum number of people that are switching from the 3G to 4G networks due to affordable prices, the mobile shopping is expected to surge further among the young population.

Conclusion With the current business scenario in the favor of India, eCommerce site owners need to take the help of an expert eCommerce plugin development services that can help them take up the charge. So, there can't be any other opportune moment for your eCommerce business if you are still unable to capitalize the present circumstances. It is definitely your chance to emerge big in your particular eCommerce business segment.