Note About E-commerce in India

E-commerce has become one of the most devoted cultures followed by most of the people of India. It has changed the traditional method of buying and selling products. The products are made available over the internet through various e-commerce sites and people purchase it by simply logging in to those sites through their Smartphone’s or laptops. The sole reason for its popularity is, consumers can shop anything from anywhere, with easy return and refund policies with the products being delivered to their doorsteps.

There are currently 148 million e-commerce users in India and the number is expected to grow to 358 million by December 2019.As per the current trend Electronics is currently the leading product category, accounting for around 4.9 billion USD market share and fashion is the second leading category, accounting for 4.8 billion USD market share.By 2020, fashion is expected to be the leading category.

The Indian government on December 26, 2018 imposed new rules and regulations on E-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart which will be imposed from Feb 1,2019. The rules state that no foreign-funded marketplace can source more than 25% of its goods from a company associated with the marketplace. These companies supply goods to a merchant who sells those products on their own marketplace. This rule imposes a limit on how much one vendor can sell on a particular portal. The policy also prohibits an e-commerce platform from giving any preferential treatment to any supplier. This has been done for better enforcement of the policy as enunciated by the Press Note 3 of 2016. The PN3 of 2016 had made it clear that e-commerce policy could not directly or indirectly influence prices, but there had been multiple complaints against these platforms violating these norms to offer discounts through their group entities in logistics and wholesale. This could put an end to selective promotional schemes such as discounts or cash backs or faster delivery, which will be deemed unfair under the new policy. These changes will help to create a level playing field for all players. 

India’s e-commerce market worth is 17.5 billion USD, expected to reach 32.8 billion USD by the end of 2019. The revenues are increasing because consumers have the liberty and comfort to choose the method of payment that is done through a payment gateway. An example of payment gateway is Paytm which has become one of the most preferred payment gateways. Another example is Cash on Delivery which is preferred by most of the users in India and has facilitated the growth of e-commerce.

E-commerce is continuously progressing and becoming essential to businesses and to customers. Trusted and registered payment gateways have lured the shop visitors into the virtual shops. E-commerce in India has a broad scope in future due to India’s ever increasing population and the rules imposed by the government that is highly beneficial to the Indian retailers and sellers engaged in e-commerce businesses.