Snapdeal reveals 4 ecommerce predictions for 2016

In a Business Insider article, Anand Chandrasekaran, Chief Product Officer at Snapdeal shared 4 predictions for ecommerce 2016.

He wrote, “In the process of laying the future roadmap to create the most impactful digital commerce ecosystem, there are four focus areas which will require special attention – digital payments, O2O and Omni channel, vernacular interfaces, and predictive analysis.”

The four predictions or focus areas by Snapdeal

1. Digital payment solutions will gain more acceptance from sellers, which will strengthen financial supply chain. The marketplace that acquired FreeCharge is already working on this area.

Chandrasekaran said, “In 2016, faster cash transaction solutions will be developed for sellers and merchants as well.” He added, “At the same time, forecasts that suggest the mobile wallet market in India are expected to reach US USD 6.6 billion by 2020 (India Mobile Wallet Market Forecast and Opportunities, 2020) indicate greater adoption of wallets as a simplified and secure digital payment option.”

2. As most of the Indians are omni-channel shoppers, penetration of o2o retailing is the key to expand business in 2016.

“Retailers and marketplaces are increasingly recognizing the need to reach on-the-move customers through multiple entry points – web, wap, app and in- store – as consumption patterns evolve. A robust omni-channel programme will help e-commerce players integrate in-store and online product discovery and delivery, creating value and loyalty in customers,” reasoned Chandrasekaran.

3. Reaching out to non-English speaking Internet users to tap the unexplored ecommerce market.

He rightly states, “The next growth area, we feel, will be in developing language-based interface solutions, back-end support and customer engagement teams to create an experience unique to vernacular audiences.”

4. Innovative strategies with the help of technology such as Big Data insights and Predictive Analysis to make product discovery, purchase and delivery easy.

“The spate of innovations like more efficient product discovery, greater integration of social platforms to mimic peer-influenced purchase decisions, replication of offline browsing experiences are all steps in the direction to make a great first impact. Now, an important focus area for e-commerce marketplaces will be real-time addressing of consumer pain-points which predominantly rest on lack of trust and inconvenience,” asserted Chandrasekaran.

Snapdeal’s predictions matches Indian Online Seller’s ecommerce forecast 2016

Indian Online Seller’s ‘Predictions 2016 – Top 7 trends that will shape Indian ecommerce’ article has all the above 4 focus areas listed by Snapdeal, besides 3 additional points. IOS too feels that digital payments, click-and-mortar (O2O, omni channel), sites in local languages, and high-tech personalized shopping are the areas that ecommerce players will have to work on in 2016 in order to survive the ever-growing and ever-changing online industry.