E-commerce likely to hit $1.2 trillion by 2021

Mumbai: E-commerce is expected to be the next level of consumer growth driver beginning this year and the online marketplace in the country is expected to grow to $1.2 trillion by 2021, a report said on Tuesday. The Deloitte India and Retailers Association of India report pegs the India's e-commerce marketplace at $200 billion and said it is poised to grow to $1.2 trillion by 2021, the third largest consumer market in the world. 

The report observed that despite the stress faced by the Indian rupee and the rising crude oil bill, Indian retail market would grow at a CAGR of 7.8 percent between 2021 and 2026. The Deloittes 2019 consumer business focused report 'Unravelling the Indian Consumer' noted that India’s e-commerce marketplace is currently growing at CAGR 32 percent and would further rise as the e-commerce space grows at a massive pace, boosting the overall consumer segment growth in the country. 

It attributed the growth projection to changing purchasing patterns and noted that with increasing internet penetration in India, online buyers are rapidly increasing.Moreover, m-commerce is growing at an exponential pace, m-wallets transactions in India increased from Rs 200 billion in FY16 to Rs 3,000 billion in FY18, it said. High intensity online shopping pattern and heightened use of smartphones, given the increase in internet penetration across the semi-urban and rural segments, has helped to boost the sales, led by the millennial population across tier I, tier II and tier III markets. 

Social-commerce in India has been on the rise, it noted adding that 28 percent millennials purchase products due to social media recommendations, and 63 percent millennials stay updated on brands through social media. The decision-making capability and adoption uptick going beyond the urban areas, it said adding that it is further facilitated by digital technology. 

Moreover, use of innovation by way of offering experiential retail has picked up of late with the use of advanced data analytics, bots and drones, beacons, cloud-platforms, Augmented reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR) to understand the real need of the consumer, it said.