Ecommerce Revolution in India

The major reason behind the growing popularity of e-commerce sites in India is its hassle free nature. Now the customers do not need to stand in long queues to perform important transactions such as bill payment, hotel reservations, and booking tickets. With the increased availability of such service providers it is now easy for consumers to shop around and find the best possible product.

There is no denying the fact that e-commerce has re-entered India and is here to stay. Even the small and medium retailers of the country want to ride the wave and are ready to make a fortune out of the market place concept. It may be now that online shopping has become popular but the concept of e-Commerce was introduced long back in the 20th century.

• Introduction of E-Commerce:-

The year 1991 noted a new chapter in the history of the online world where e-commerce became a hot choice amongst the commercial use of the internet. At that time nobody would have even thought that the buying and selling online or say the online trading will become a trend in the world and India will also share a good proportion of this success.

• IRCTC teaches India to Book ticket online:-

India first came into interaction with the online E-Commerce via the IRCTC. The government of India implemented this online strategy to make it convenient for its public to book the train tickets. The advancements in the technology as the years passed on have been also seen in the IRCTC Online system as now one can book tickets on one go, can check the status of the ticket and availability of the train as well. This is a big achievement in the history of India in the field of online E-Commerce.

• Introduction of Low Cost Airline with AirDeccan:-

After the unpredicted success of the IRCTC, the online ticket booking system was followed by the airlines (like AirDeccan, Indian Airlines, Spicejet, etc.). Airline agency encouraged, web booking to save the commission given to agents and thus in a way made a major population of the country to try E-Commerce for the first time.

• The Deep Discounted model of Flipkart:-

The acceptance of the ecommerce on a large scale by the Indian people influenced other business players also to try this technique for their E-businesses and gain high profits. Though online shopping has been present since the 2000 but it gained popularity only with deep discount model of Flipkart. In a way it re-launched online shopping in India.  Soon other portals like Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong, etc. started hunting India for their businesses.

• Current Scenario:-

Online shopping in its early stage was a simple medium for shopping with fewer options. The users can just place an order and pay cash on delivery. But, in last few years this field has been renovated to a high extent and hence fascinated many customers. Today, the online shopping has become a trend in India and the reason behind the adoption of this technique lies in the attractive online websites, user friendly interface, bulky online stores with new fashion, easy payment methods (i.e. secure pay online via gateways like cash-on-delivery), no bound on quantity & quality, one can choose the items based on size, color, price, etc.

Despite being a developing country, India has shown a commendable increase in the ecommerce industry in the last couple of years, thereby hitting the market with a boom. Though the Indian online market is far behind the US and the UK, it has been growing at a fast page.

The Way Forward

• Social Media as a Lead Generation tool:-

Social media has now become the hub for the Businesses which enable them to analyze the customer choice based on their purchase activities. Social network like LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Facebook and others have become a medium for easy log-in and purchase. Moreover, the clients can stay updated via the posts published on this media. Further, the advertising & promotions on these social sites has increased the chances of success of generating transactions to many folds.

• Mobile Commerce:-

The latest trend in e-commerce it to focus on mobile based shopping. It is speculated that the next wave of digital commerce consumer will come through the mobile.

• Online Grocery Store:-

Online grocery stores are gaining popularity in India due to absolute convenience, ease of shopping and a fast-growing market.