It’s not always about discounts for online Indian shoppers, says Google

A Google survey done in India has revealed that almost 90% of online consumers look beyond discounts while shopping online, willing to pay for a variety of value adds, which include faster delivery, extended warranty, and hassle free returns.

The study on digital retail was done in association with consulting firm A T Kearney and projected that e-tail in India will become a substantial channel for the organized retail sector, and would contribute as much as 25% of the total organized retail sales in the coming years. As of now, it contributes about 15%.

The survey also stated that the number of online shoppers is expected to grow from 50 million to 175 million.

"The next three to four years will be critical for the Industry to get on the path of sustained profitability. As per our report, some of the areas that will accelerate and support profitability include following a focused approach to drive deeper engagement with India's 60 million high value customers as they will drive two-thirds of the total e-tail spends," said Rajan Anandan, MD of Google South East Asia and India.

The report also adds that over the last one year, consumer interest in online shopping has almost doubled, with 60% of online shoppers come from non-metro cities. To serve this growing demand, online sellers need to grow by five times by 2020.

Innovative delivery models and omni-channel presence are a few steps that sellers would undertake so that they can bring more people online.

The survey also hints at a five times increase in women shoppers, from 15 million now to 75 million by 2020, who will also double the amount that they spend online. Other than this, cashless transactions would take preference over COD, while lifestyle category is set to overtake consumer electronics to become the largest e-tail category by 2020.

The research covered among 3,000 online and offline sellers, buyers and non-buyers across 20 cities, which included both metros, and tier 2 and 3 cities.

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