India’s online retail sales seen rising to $32.7 billion this year
Online retail sales in India are expected to grow by 31% this year to touch $32.70 billion, led by e-commerce players Flipkart, Amazon Inc. and Paytm Mall, according to a report by marketing research firm eMarketer. However, India’s growth rate in retail e-commerce is yet to catch up with countries such as China and Indonesia in the Asia Pacific market.
Flipkart, Amazon and Paytm Mall have been expanding into new sectors, including grocery, and with Walmart’s recent $16 billion acquisition of Flipkart, e-commerce in India is expected to launch more offline retail stores with private labels playing a larger role in segments such as fashion and electronic accessories.
A combination of factors have contributed to India’s growing ranks of digital buyers, including large investments made by companies like Amazon, Flipkart and Paytm Mall, growing internet and smartphone usage, and demographics—the country’s young population and burgeoning middle class.
eMarketer estimates that a quarter of India’s population will become digital shoppers by end of 2018, the figure touching 41.6% by 2022.
However, India’s e-commerce market is yet to get into its stride. The online retail market in India has more than tripled since 2015, but it is only expected to contribute to 2.9% of the total retail sales in 2018. This, however, is expected to change in the coming years. By 2022, the sector will be worth $71.94 billion, which is a 120% growth compared to $32.70 billion in 2018, the research firm added. Comparatively, in China, online retail already makes up more than 16% of the overall retail market, and is expected to touch 25% in 2020, according to a 2017 report by Goldman Sachs. In China, the next set of growth is expected to come from advanced logistics infrastructure and the offline-online retail mix led by omni-commerce retailers.
In India, last-mile logistics still remains a bottleneck for most e-commerce marketplaces. But several companies such as Lenskart, UrbanLadder and Fab Alley have set-up brick-and-mortar stores across India to grow their customer base. Apart from this, big offline retail chains like Max Fashion and Future Group are already experimenting with omni-commerce models.
government has started work on reviving two greenfield port projects, which had failed to take off due to various reasons, said two senior state government officials in the know of the development.
The projects may require an investment of ₹6,000-6,500 crore and the government is looking to bring in private developers ahead of the 2019 edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit, slated to be held in Gandhinagar in January. This is to ensure that project agreements can be signed at the event, said one of the two officials, requesting anonymity. The state maritime regulator has already invited bids for appointing transaction advisers for the two ports, he added.
The proposed Mithivirdi port was scrapped about eight years ago to make way for a 6,000MW nuclear power plant. However, in its May 2017 order, the National Green Tribunal had asked the Nuclear Power Corp. of India to move the project from Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh, following protests by the locals, who had also refused to give up their land.
BENGALURU: AHMEDABAD:Gujarat