E-commerce has emerged as India’s new sun-rise industry and is set to cross business worth $16 billion by the end of 2015, a joint study by ASSOCHAM-Deloitte said.
The ‘Future of e-commerce: Uncovering Innovation’ study reveals that the digital commerce market in India has grown steadily from $4.4 billion in 2010 to $13.6 billion in 2014 and likely to touch $16 billion by the end of 2015 on the back of growing internet population and increased online shoppers.
It said online travel accounts for nearly 61% of e-commerce business while e-tailing contributes about 29%.
Stating that e-commerce players from the US, Europe and Japan are seeing slower growth in home markets, ASSOCHAM quoting the study, said they are increasingly looking to enter developing economies of India, Brazil and China which have forecast growth rates of more than 20% over the coming years.
The most popular e-commerce categories are non-consumable durables and entertainment related products, highlighted the joint study.
“The greater adoption of internet and smartphones is the biggest driver of e-commerce in India,” ASSOCHAM secretary general D S Rawat said.
Internet penetration is rapidly increasing with around 300 million users in 2014, he said, adding, “The smartphone is steadily growing and consists of 35% of the overall mobile phones market in the country and success rate of some of the technologies is directly connected to the success of e-commerce.”
The study also states that the e-commerce companies are concentrating their efforts on increasing the penetration of their mobile apps for higher growth, adding that big players in this space claim to have more than 50% of their revenue coming from mobile apps.
