This is truly a country of contradictions. On one hand, you have small petty shops upgrading themselves to do roaring business. On the other, you see eCommerce spreading its wings to fly into newer horizons. Yes, the malls are booming in some cities, while falling flat on their face in a few towns. Indians are busy breathing life into the eCommerce ventures in their country, encouraging the growth of new economy that’s powered by the Internet. These days, Indians prefer Internet for shopping clothes, gifts or furniture; but also to procure simpler things such as groceries.
Whether it is the increased penetration of the Internet, or the efficient supply chain management followed by eCommerce companies, more and more people have been switching over to Internet than going to the nearby grocer’s shop.
This observation was made by US Department of Agriculture (
Online retailers are truly competing with kiryana stores and small supermarket setups to provide quick home delivery facilities, along with credit to neighbourhood consumers. These are a few aspects that had held the bond of kiryana stores and consumers who would buy groceries from them since generations. However, there is something that the online stores will have to take a leaf out of the book of kiryana store owners – that is to set up a fool-proof credit system, and also to overcome delivery challenges.
The growth has a particular pattern and age group too. Mostly the young professionals who are pressed for time are the ones who are availing this facility, helping the segment grow manifold. Understandably so, the growth of this segment is high in cities such as Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Trivandrum, Coimbatore and others where the floating population is high.
Earlier when the idea of eCommerce was being discussed, prompting people to think about the days when they could literally buy everything over the net, the major contemplation in India was about the ‘touch and feel’ practice that was hard to change in an Indian consumer.
But, clearly as things are going, the typical Indian consumer has also changed his preferences over the years when eCommerce gained ground. Today, USDA has noted that the Indian buyer doesn’t necessarily have to ‘inspect’ the things that he/she is buying. The bias of having to ‘see’ before buying as slowly replaced into faith on the automated purchases made through the Internet. Owing to measures such as cash on delivery and cash back policies – though the latter is still a hassle in some companies – Indian consumer is propelling the market in a new direction.
The number of online retail store is expected to rise in the future owing to the increased user base of smartphones and mobiles. Last year alone saw the number of internet users accessing it through phone jumped from 120 million to 213 million. 'Shopping on the go' is no longer a strange experience.
While one may well count on wide range of selection of goods, and convenient options such as cash on delivery and credit card payments as drivers of this new trend, the factor of changing urban landscape also needs to be taken into account.
Increased chaos in urban spaces, crowded shopping areas, shortage of parking space and doing groceries demanding lots of time commitment – all have equally contributed to the growth of this sector. It remains to be seen whether this growth would sustain in the future or wither away with time.
Image: Indiatimes