It is understood that the scale of India’s online retail market is 1/90 of China’s, and the scale of Internet users is 1/3 of China’s. It is at the critical point of take-off of the e-commerce markets of China, South Africa, and Brazil. India has the second largest population in the world, but will soon surpass China. In 2015, the Internet penetration rate was only 15%, far lower than 50% in China and 90% in the United States. The proportion of online shoppers is even lower, which means that the demographic dividend will be Astonishing.
India’s online retail industry maintains an average annual growth rate of 45%, and Bank of America predicts that India’s online shopping market will reach US$220 billion by 2025. With a vast land and dense population, this economic, demographic and geographical situation is exactly in line with the characteristics of e-commerce online shopping, such as grass-roots nature, convenience, high efficiency and low prices. With the increasing awareness of Indian netizens and the reduction of online shopping costs, as well as the layout of major global e-commerce companies in India, coupled with the widespread use of social media, these are bound to promote the take-off of Indian e-commerce.
There are currently three giants in the Indian e-commerce market, namely Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon. However, the leaders are still unclear, and they all have behind-the-scenes investments. Snapdeal was originally a group buying website and transformed into an e-commerce platform in 2012; Flipkart started as an online bookstore, and its own logistics system has significantly improved the efficiency of India’s existing logistics network.
Internet companies from China have also accelerated their presence in the Indian market in the past year or two. In 2015, Alibaba Group invested in Snapdeal and PayTM, India’s largest third-party payment company. Xiaomi launched its official Indian website and Selling mobile phones through local e-commerce, Baidu is also trying to invest in discount e-commerce Mydala, food ordering website Zomato, ticketing website BookMyShow and online supermarket BigBasket.
Wal-Mart invested US$1 billion in Flipkart after investing in JD.com. Amazon is still hesitating in whom to invest. It is foreseeable that the “Three Kingdoms” will continue. Recently, Amazon decided to set up its second largest global delivery center after the US in India.
Although in 2014, India’s Internet penetration rate was only equivalent to China’s 2008 level and the United States’ 1996 level, the proportion of young people here in the total population is very high, and the sales ratio of mobile e-commerce Up to 45%. The coverage of wireless Internet and mobile phones is growing. PayTM has become the largest mobile e-commerce and payment platform, with more than 130 million registered users. In 2015, its GMV reached US$3.5 billion, and its monthly transaction volume exceeded US$75 million, of which 60% was transaction volume. From mobile.
For most Indians, e-commerce is not a candidate shopping channel. It is often the only option, and often only accessible via mobile phones. Unlike the supermarkets we see everywhere, brick-and-mortar retailers are scarce in India, and the e-commerce market remains fragmented.
Indian regulations limit the proportion of foreign-owned retail shares, forcing foreign companies to find local partners, and the goods and services tax varies in various regions. The reason why companies are eager to capture market share is the future development potential of the Indian e-commerce market. But the vast and multilingual territory, crumbling infrastructure and bureaucratic markets are miserable.
With the popularity of e-commerce, logistics business opportunities cannot be underestimated. In addition to leading cross-border express delivery companies such as GATI and DTDC, local Delhivery warehouse distribution and Gojavas express have developed rapidly after receiving investment. For air transport, Blue Dart, a subsidiary of DHL, has and FirstFlight are more mature. Neighboring Pakistan is also a country with a large population, but its e-commerce development is far less than that of India. It is a better environment for exporting Chinese goods and deserves further study.