By Chaitanya Ramalingegowda
Indian e-commerce has seen a hockey stick of growth in the past few years. From the pioneering days of IndiaPlaza and Flipkart, which had to create the ecosystem from the ground up, to Walmarts acquisition of Flipkart at a heady $16 billion valuation, the Indian market has evolved tremendously. Currently, the number of Indians with access to the Internet is 481 million, an increase of 11.34% from 2016 as per IAMAI; the number of online shoppers is estimated to be about 120 million as per an ASSOCHAM-Resurgent study and the number of credit card holders is 29.8 million as per RBI numbers. All these parameters are still growing and along with the other building blocks of e-commerce development such as fulfilment centres, last-mile delivery infrastructure and selection of products the numbers are likely to grow further. Along with this, there are certain trends that will undoubtedly shape Indian e-commerce for the next three years.
Democratized discovery
With data costs plummeting, the average Indian user is very comfortable spending time browsing through hundreds of options before making a purchase. The availability of such inexpensive data, coupled with a growing body of online reviews will grow to the key determinant in decision-making.
In the United States, reviews have become such an important part of the shopping experience, that Amazon US only allows verified customers from posting reviews for products. In India, most marketplaces have an open review policy where a customer who may not be genuine can still post a review, thus diluting the value of all reviews. However, once there is substantial content, then the AI-enabled weeding process will begin, making sure the quality of all reviews is high.
Vernacular content to aid online shopping
Indias literacy rate is 74% while the English literacy rate is about 10% (125 million). While English literacy is picking up, a large part of India still thinks and searches in their native tongue. New vernacular social networks such as ShareChat are fulfilling the need for regional language connections with friends and family members, and have provided e-commerce companies with the perfect recipe for growth. More and more e-commerce portals are likely to have content in major regional languages in an attempt to reach out to the affluent but non-English speaking population.
Voice-activated searches
Google recently made changes to its search results algorithm to ensure that more and more specific questions are answered with accurate results and reflect how the next generation of online users are interacting on the internet. Consumers do not search anymore by typing, buy Android tablet India, but they instead ask Google or Alexa, Which is the best Android tablet in India under RS 15,000?. As a result of the same, the product discovery journey in India will be altered and so will the corresponding content marketing strategies by e-commerce companies.
Product searches may not begin on search engines
Till a few years ago, the majority of product searches began on search engines, mainly Google. However, search and discovery has moved to social networks (Facebook, Instagram) and large horizontal e-commerce portals (Amazon, Flipkart). Consumers are either discovering products based on their interests or through their personal online networks of friends and family. This will transform the way e-commerce firms spend their advertising budgets and brands will be more willing to spend on other marketplaces.
E-commerce will be the preferred destination for more categories
The main categories for e-commerce in India have primarily been electronics, apparel and accessories, personal care & beauty products. The reason for the same has been that all of these categories are sold through big brands have a standardized design with structured parameters which customers can use to compare products and make a purchase. Moving forward, other items such as furniture, groceries amongst others will also move online as customers become more comfortable with buying products online.
Finally, customers will stop differentiating between online and offline purchases and brands will finally make the transition to an integrated omnichannel presence.
Chaitanya Ramalingegowda is the Co-Founder of Wakefit.co