62
AN OVERVIEW OF ONLINE SHOPPING IN INDIA: CHALLENGES AND OPPURTUNITIESJayant Kumar
Post-Graduate in Economics, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi Abstract- Online shopping in India has grown exorbitantly just because of the fast moving lifestyle. The remarkable growth of online shopping in India is due to increase use of cellular devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, developed internet penetration and drastic shift in the buying tendency of the consumers. In India, the positivity in preference and pattern towards e-commerce is mainly because of the influence of colleagues, friends, relatives, and better options of products, increased use of internet,rise in standard of living, shopping satisfaction and lucrative offers. New generation Indians makes a great contribution to the increasing trends of online shopping. They have a large share in use of internet globally. Different buying and selling options have emerged with the expansion of online shopping industry. Various initiatives have been taken by government, also, in this regard.
Keywords: online shopping e-commerce portal internet customers.
1 INTRODUCTION
Online shopping has an outstanding growth all around the world. In online shopping the customer purchases the product of their choice directly through the use of various portals available online without any intermediary. Online shopping has various reasons for being popular and more consumers become familiar with the internet and its benefits. It is opted by a large number of consumers who are looking for better schemes, regarding cost, choice, convenience and information. The lifestyle of Indians changed more drastically and access to internet had enabled them to consume variety of things. Online shopping has made it easy for the consumer to surf variety of products just a click away. Online shopping is available 24*7*365 for its customers. Comparison of goods and services between stores, reading product review, and return policy has made the customers easy to shop online.
2 ONLINE SHOPPING TRAITS
The online shopping has some distinct characteristics which are a part of information and communication technology. It comprises of:-
I. Online Traffic- The data sharing speed and online traffic are one of the major indicator of easy to use portals and changing behaviour of online shopping.
II. User Friendly Interface- The majority of consumers agrees that easy to use shopping portals and its simplicity as the most preferred features. They initially watch before shopping online.
III. Mobile Compatibility- As most of the consumers of new generation uses smartphones, so it becomes mandatory for the shopping sites to have mobile applications available to its customers.
IV. Feedback By Customers- The accessibility, accuracy and product review are the most deciding feature that the online shopping sites must have. As it eases the customers to make their choices and book the order.
V. Payment Options- Different and easy to conduct payment gateways must be available to pay online such as debit cards, credit cards, net banking and cash on delivery.
VI. Maintaining Privacy- There should be privacy maintained for the customers.
Customer’s billing details, card security and other data should not be leaked.
3 EVOLUTION OF ONLINE SHOPPING IN INDIA
Indian online market is expected to rise to US $ 200 billion by 2026 from US $ 38.5 billion in 2017. Total internet user base is to grow by 829 million in 2021 from 637 million in 2019. E-commerce revenue will get boosted to US $ 120 billion in 2020 from what it was US
$ 39 billion in 2017, which is about 51% of annual growth rate. Indian online market is led by Flip kart, PayTm Mall, and Amazon is about to grow by 31%. Electric devices have a big share in Indian online retail market with 48% share.
63
Leaders of Indian online market:-I. Acquisition of flipkart by Wal-Mart is about to launch more offline retail stores II. Nykaa makes a presence in the 3-tier cities
III. Reliance invested 2,00,000 crore INR in the telecom business to expand broadband and offer 5G services
IV. ‘internet saathi’ developed by the Tata Trust and Google, to improve internet facility in the rural women population
Since 2014, the NDA-Government have launched several projects like Make in India, Digital India, Start-up India, Innovation fund and Skill India for the growth of the country. Initiatives in the field of e-commerce in India by the government are:-
I. GeM i.e. Government e-market place II. National e-commerce policy, 2019 III. 100% FDI in e-commerce
IV. Bharat Net Project etc. to name a few.
4 LEADS IN INDIAN E-COMMERCE
By providing means of finance, training, technology and good platform, the Indian e- commerce industry is directly affecting the MSME-Sectors. By 2034, the Indian e- commerce industry will surpass many developed countries, as it is on an upward growth trajectory. Digital marketing, online payment, hyper-local logistics and customer engagement analytic drive supports the growth of this sector. It also boosts export, revenue generations, and employment creation besides providing global services.
Leads created in the last few years:-
I. In India, the e-retailers achieved US $ 3 billion of Gross Merchandise Value (GMV)
II. Value of Unified Payment Interface (UPI) transactions recorded 1.15 billion transactions amounting to be more than 1.913 trillion INR
III. Number of internet subscribers in India is about 666 million
IV. Udaan, Umang and Start-up India portals are launched as leading initiatives by the government
V. Amazon India launched the Amazon Market Place application store
VI. Around 16 million women of 16,000 villages are benefitted by the Internet Saathi program
VII. The BHIM-App that is Bharat Interface for Money, a smartphone based digital platform has also been launched.
It must be noted that electronics with a share of 48% followed by apparels at 29% is the leading contributors of the Indian online retail sales. By 2025, the non-electronic categories are expected to take 80% share in online retail sales in India. In India, the number of online customers is expected to cross 220 million by 2025.
5 KEYS TO DRIVE E-COMMERCE BUSINESS
The shopping via online portals happens 24*7. The online customers use various modes of payment options. These payment options are the driving force of the online shopping. In India, the majority of online payment options are as follows:-
I. E-WALLET- it stores customer data online and can be used for payment at online portals. Whereas it is easy to sing-up for an e-wallet.
II. CREDIT/DEBIT CARDS- it is the most common method of making online payments and is used worldwide, e.g. RuPay, VISA and Master Card etc.
III. NET BANKING- it assures the customer that their money is safely used as they are password protected
IV. MOBILE PAYMENTS- it offers common solution for customers as they use SMS option for payment
V. DIRECT DEPOSIT- it is a common payment method for subscription type services such as OTT Platform, online classes, or payment of higher level purchases.
64
Customers are attracted to online shopping not because of convenience but also for competitive prices and huge range of options available. As the payment complete, the product is delivered by various ways of logistics such as shipping, in-store pick-ups, drop shipping, and digital distributions. Some commonly used online shopping sites are Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal, Jabong, Clubfactory, Shopclues, Pepperfry, Paytm, and Futurebazar etc. Online buying patterns involve different stages as, registration, personal database, favourites, wish list, feedback, reviews and ratings.6 CONCLUSION
With the increasing number and accessible internet use, the online market is growing all around the world including India. Online consumers have increased phenomenally. The online comparison of different products of various brands and difference in price range has attracted the customers to online shopping and negligence to the retail stores. Seeing the future growth of the e-commerce industry the government has also taken various initiatives to prosper this industry. In India, the future of online shopping is very prosperous as well as demanding. I hereby conclude by saying that even in this COVID-19 pandemic the e- commerce business is nurturing. Many pharmaceutical sector applications are also budding such as Pharm easy, Net Meds which provide medicines and medical equipment at our doorstep at much lesser price. So I must say that this e-commerce industry is running at an unmatchable pace.
REFERENCES
1. Karuakaran N., 89-90, Pratiyogita Darpan/august/2020.
2. The Hindu, editorial, 14 September 2020.
3. The times of India, editorial, 27 November 2020.
