This year hasn’t been too kind to Indian ecommerce players. There have been a string of markdowns, shutdowns, policy changes, allegations and legal hassles. So much so, that people started wondering if ecommerce boom was another dot com bubble on the horizon.
But we are happy to report that contrary to the negative stories, it’s just the beginning for ecommerce, according to experts.
Retailers’ Association of India (RAI) believes that as days of generous funding are over and online players are surrendering the deep-discounting model because of DIPP’s instruction, ecommerce competition will get more real.
“Now, the e-commerce dream run will become more relevant without the mayhem of deep discounting,” said Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO of RAI.
Tata Group’s entry is also viewed as a positive sign for the online industry since big corporates can smell money & potential from a great distance.
“E-commerce in India has the potential to touch 20 per cent of the total retail pie,” stated Sandeep Aggarwal, co-founder of Shopclues.
Industry watchers believe that big ecommerce and retail players will gain the most as they have buyers, investors, experience, infrastructure, and manpower on their side. But only if they succeed in creating an independent identity instead of being part of a clone factory.
“Whether it’s a dream run or not needs to be evaluated from the perspective of companies, investors, customers, employment market and government/regulators separately. The larger players would continue to grow, considering the consumer adoption of e-commerce in India, as well as the increasing smartphone penetration”, said Sreedhar Prasad of KPMG.
However, the companies stuck in the middle may have to retire. Etailers who are struggling to get funds and reduce their burn rate will have to exit eventually.
As of now, the online retail industry is filled with Indian players (Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm, Shopclues), foreign players (eBay, Amazon, Alibaba) and traditional retailers (Future Group, Tata Group, Birla, Reliance). Rajagopalan revealed that out of all, the one with the best omni-channel retail set-up would sit on the leader’s chair. Who will it be? Please tell us through your comments.
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.
Leave a Comment
