Online consumer spends to hit $100 bn by 2020

Online consumer spending is expected to grow 2.5 times to around $100 billion by 2020 led by growth in e-commerce, travel and hotel, financial services and digital media, says a report.

Indians at present spend around $40 billion through digital transactions.

“Potential exists for digital transactions to triple from around $40 billion to $100 billion by 2020,” the report by the Boston Consulting Group in association with Google said on Thursday.

E-commerce for products such as apparel and accessories, consumer electronics, durables, food and grocery, is likely to be the biggest constituent with the market size estimated to reach $40-45 billion by 2020, from around $18 billion at present.

Digital payments for travel and hotel is estimated to touch $20 billion by 2020 from $11 billion at present, financial services to reach to $30 billion from $12 billion at present, and digital media to reach $570 million from $200 million, according to the report. Online users has grown two times in four years to reach 430 million users at present, propelled by cheaper smartphones, cheaper data and more mobile-specific or local language content, it said. The report found that women, new users from nontier 1 cities and above 35 years shoppers will drive this growth. It also estimates that by 2020, the women shoppers will increase 2.5 times and older shoppers will increase more than 3 times compared to today.