The current government, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), has promised that it will connect 2,50,000 villages to telecom by 2019. If this plan works, it will be a great blessing for ecommerce companies, as it will open a vista of opportunities. The NDA government is working towards this through its ambitious project, the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), said to be valued at a cost of Rs. 20,000 crores.
The NOFN project plans to use the existing fibres of government organisations like BSNL, and Power Grid. These fibres will help the NOFN to connect rural parts of the country. In a bid to promote all round technological and economical development in the country, the government is also looking to create 300 smart villages. This project, to cost roughly Rs. 5,124 crores, is targeted to be completed in the next three years.
This ‘rurban’ project aims to create economic hubs in the rural areas, to provide sustainable employment opportunities and prevent migration to urban areas.
The government’s Digital India program will put all government programs online. The program will also help in the growth of the IT field.
The government’s plans are a boon for the ecommerce industry, which is growing at a steady pace. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) puts the value of the Indian ecommerce industry at $13.4 billion in 2014. Leading ecommerce companies are thrilled at the opportunities they will get with increased rural connectivity.
Says an Amazon spokesperson, “with rising Internet penetration and the ongoing smartphone revolution, customers in smaller towns and villages now have great access to quality products at low prices. Currently, about 50% of the orders on Amazon.in come from outside the top eight cities.”
Snapdeal is also doing what it can to increase its rural buyer base.
A spokesperson says, “Snapdeal is working with various partners to provide assisted e-commerce service through rural kiosks, where the partner agent assists customers to make purchases of their choice from the Snapdeal platform. These kiosks also serve as collection centres in areas where buyers do not have identifiable addresses.”
However, experts feel that merely creating networks will not do, education and awareness is also crucial.
Rohit Bhatiani, director of Deloitte India feels that there are two sides to this problem. “One is reaching out to the consumer by connecting rural India through optical fibre. The other is to make them digitally literate to make them actually buy online.” He says.
The government and ecommerce companies need to work on assisting rural buyers in the technicalities of online shopping.
Editor team is specialized in introducing the marketplace content targeting the Indian online sellers. They plan and coordinate to bring the appealing content for the small businesses on how to partner with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and strategies for improving their online business.
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