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<ul><li>The <keyword id="36208" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="festive-season" source="Orion">festive season</keyword> has always been important to brands, especially to e-commerce players who line up big bumper discounts, look for more retail brands to partner and ramp up their product offerings.</li><li>This festive season, e-commerce platforms are focusing on bringing more personalisation and curation to customers shopping online through greater tech and marketing integration.</li><li>More and more e-commerce platforms are also exploring social commerce, turning their apps into super apps by bringing content, products and trends under one roof for consumers to watch and shop at once.</li><li>With increasing internet penetration, e-commerce players are expecting new growth from Tier II, III and beyond this festive, which will cumulatively contribute to $150 billion of e-commerce as per RedSeer Consulting’s report.</li><li>We speak to India’s leading e-commerce players to find out more about their festive plans and revival expectations.</li></ul>The year 2020 accelerated e-commerce industry, perhaps by a decade, revolutionising the way brands operate, run, and grow their businesses, as well as how consumers choose to shop and pay. In the initial months of the lockdown, businesses witnessed a clear shift in consumer behaviour. Historically offline shoppers also came online due to convenience and safety. Consumers are still hesitant to return to in-store shopping completely and audiences from Tier II and Tier III are also preferring to shop online. The pandemic has evidently caused an inflection point for e-commerce in the country. With the second-largest internet user base, India has emerged as one of the most prominent markets globally. Around 480 million people in India have access to the internet out of which 90 million are online shoppers, according to estimates from management consultancy RedSeer. Shoppers from India’s small towns and cities will cumulatively contribute to $150 billion of e-commerce GMV in the coming decade, until 2030, revealed RedSeer. <div type="image" title="redseer - ecomm report" msid="85901903" hostid="261"></div> After spending a glum year and a half, consumers are excited to celebrate the festive season with upcoming shopping sales for Diwali, Dussehra and Christmas. IPL and ICC T-20 World Cup will further improve consumer sentiment this year. According to a survey conducted by The Trade Desk and YouGov, 82% of consumers shopped online at least once a month in the past six months, and nearly one in four made online purchases several times a week or more often. Titled ‘<a href="https://pages.thetradedesk.com/rs/527-INM-364/images/TheFestiveSeasonPulse2021.pdf">The Festive Season Pulse 2021</a>,’ it further said that 91% of Indian consumers are planning a purchase during the upcoming festive season and six in 10 are interested in learning about new brands during festive season sales. To leverage this uptick in consumer sentiment, the e-commerce category is all set to begin its festive marketing blitz and is preparing to line up big discounts for the season in a few weeks. For this 30-day period leading up to the festive season, leading fashion e-commerce platform <keyword id="319719" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="myntra" source="Orion">Myntra</keyword> has planned ‘Big Fashion Festival,’ which will be followed up with Myntra Diwali Sale, with a focus on ethnic wear. It will also be focusing on emerging categories like Beauty and Personal care, kidswear and categories such as innerwear and essentials which have experienced tailwinds post-Covid. Myntra’s Chief Business Officer, Ayyappan Rajagopal said, “We are expecting this festive season to be bigger than last year with more customers using online channels to make their purchases. Demand usually peaks in the 30 days leading to Diwali and we expect this year to be no different. In fact, the demand in the 2 months leading to the festive season is expected to be far more than last time (because people have learnt with time to adapt to a pandemic world). We expect high demand from across geographies and markets - metros, Tier 1, Tier 2, T3 cities and beyond. To cater to that, we have built the right ethnic wear, beauty, and home selection, and have partnered with brands on best deals. Hence, to leverage this demand and provide best value to our customers, we are organizing Big Fashion Festival and Myntra Diwali Sale to make this season a resounding success.” Right on the heels of the festive season, Myntra ramped up its marketing game by onboarding Hrithik Roshan, Vijay Deverakonda and Dulquer Salmaan as its newest brand ambassadors, alongside the existing celebrity ambassadors Kiara Advani, and Samantha Akkineni. Now, it is hoping to double its customer base and cater to Gen-Z shoppers with its high-decibel marketing. “With the optimism coming from recovery from Covid and revival in shopping sentiments along with the habitualisation of digital foray across all customer segments, we see a lot of new customers shopping during this festive season. We have also seen trends in Metro/T1 markets where Myntra has been traditionally strong, pointing towards such a revival. With a positive overall sentiment, we will be looking at doubling our customer base during this period. There will also be an added focus towards expanding our footprint in southern markets, deeper penetration into Tier 2 / 3 towns and exploring customer addition through emerging categories like Kids wear, Inner wear, fashion accessories, Beauty and persona care, etc. The greatest focus will be on Gen-Z cohort of shoppers,” shared Rajagopal. E-commerce platforms are also focusing on bringing more personalisation and curation to customers shopping online through greater tech and marketing integration. More and more e-retailers are exploring social commerce, turning their apps into super apps by bringing content, products and trends under one roof for consumers to watch and shop at once. D2C fashion platform Bewakoof.com that recently raised Rs 60 crore in an investment round led by InvestCorp, IvyCap and Spring Marketing Capital, is expecting to Rs 120 crore in brand sales this quarter. It recently rolled out celebrity-led digital campaigns with Rajkummar Rao, Sanya Malhotra and Farhan Akhtar. It plans to further build its market presence by signing more A-list celebrities to its roster and launch a 360-degree campaign by October. On the technology side, the company intends to launch a gamification-led loyalty program as it upgrades its Bewakoof Tribe with new and exclusive launches for the club members. Sharing the platform’s festive plans further, Prabhkiran Singh, Founder CEO, Bewakoof.com said, “Post pandemic, we saw a strong recovery and growth in certain categories like casual wear and leisurewear because of customers staying at home and with the pandemic slowing down, we expect a strong recovery in categories like ethnic wear, bags, accessories, etc in the festive season ahead. We’re also looking to capitalise on winter wear more this year than usual with winter around the corner and have put in investments accordingly. We expect our brand sales to be Rs 120 crore for the festive quarter.” For Bewakoof, the northern and western markets see the highest demand, followed by West Bengal and Assam because of Durga Puja. Currently, over 6 million customers visit Bewakoof.com every month. Singh told us that the festive season serves as a crucial window in the year for new customer acquisition and bringing back customers that haven’t shopped again for a while. The platform is also planning on increasing its marketing spends this festive. “For this year, 15% of our total marketing budget will be spent for the upcoming festive season.” We’re in the process of rebranding Bewakoof in the next 1-2 months and we’ll have a new look, logo, tagline along with a new set of celebrities that will endorse Bewakoof so we’re excited to roll this out and create buzz around it along with backing it up with top-funnel marketing investments. We plan to go heavy on top-funnel marketing investments starting October,” said Singh. E-retail platform OLX has upped its UI to woo its customers, digitising the entire process of online retailing, including verification of all its premium items. OLX Autos launched a verified inventory of cars with a new interface, which provides a detailed history of the car right from the ownership period all the way up to the service history of the car, and access to a host of financing options and after-sales products like insurance and warranty. As a result, OLX has witnessed a surge in demand for pre-owned cars. Sapna Arora, CMO, OLX India said, “Green shoots are already visible in the used car retail segment. The demand for pre-owned cars has been 25% higher than the pre-Covid levels while there has been an 82% plus growth in demand for pre-owned smartphones. Our goods category has also witnessed a strong rebound, as demand and supply have gone up by an average of 68% and 25%, respectively, compared to pre-Covid levels. The upcoming festival season is important for us as we expect the gap to be narrowing down between pre and post-Covid levels. There has been a strong uptake of e-commerce across regions, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, with consumers there making the greatest shift to online shopping. We will continue to focus on the pre-owned auto segment and are expecting to surpass the demand this festive season.” At an industry level, Arora told us that e-commerce players are leveraging on hyper-personalisation to create individualised experiences on the platform and AI-powered chatbots are being implemented by the online retailers to bring customers close to an offline retail experience with a high engagement rate. Sharing OLX’s plan, Arora added, “This festive season we plan to use innovative solutions via relevant messaging at different levels of the retail journey. Our consumer base is growing organically. During this year’s lockdown, a lot of people moved online and we saw growth, about 30% more daily active users (DAUs) from our previous pre-Covid peak. In the festive season, our huge inventories across segments will contribute to increasing the DAU’s on the platform.” As per Nielsen India’s E-commerce Consumer Panel (E-Analytics Solution), there was a double-digit increase in average spend of online shoppers for electronics and accessories (39%), mobile and accessories (12%), and fashion, including apparel, footwear, and accessories (10%) after the pandemic. Appliances (e.g.TV, WM, refrigerators, etc.) also saw notable shopper spending increase at 9%. E-commerce giant Amazon is also ramping up its product range for the festive season. “Together with thousands of small &amp; medium business and brand partners, we continue to offer our customers the widest selection, convenience, and fast delivery. We are humbled by how millions of Indian customers have made us a part of their daily lives. Also, customers continue to believe that online shopping is the safest way to shop which has been reflecting in all the recent events of Amazon like Prime Day 2021, Great Freedom Festival, Rakhi Store, Onam store and so on. This festive season is not a normal one for reasons we all know and our success metric would be focused on how we can make our sellers successful. Customers can look forward to shopping from a wide selection of products across categories like Home &amp; Kitchen, Fashion &amp; Beauty, Appliances and Smartphones, Grocery essentials and more from the comfort and safety of their homes," said an Amazon India spokesperson. This growth trajectory of e-commerce platforms in India testifies how customers are increasingly recognising the importance of comfort shopping within closed doors, and after seeing their businesses take a plunge in the first three months of the lockdown, more and more sellers are also coming online.

This festive season, e-commerce platforms are betting big on Tier II and III markets, which are likely to contribute $150 million to e-commerce growth this year

Strong acceptance of e-commerce and digitisation is expected to accelerate the growth of India's auto sector, advisory firm Grant Thornton Bharat said. Accordingly, India's automobile market is estimated to grow more than '2.3X' from $222 billion currently to $512 billion by 2026. Notably, the analysis by Allied Market Research, Market Line, <keyword id="6354335" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="reserve-bank-of-india">Reserve Bank of India</keyword> and Grant Thornton Bharat showed that e-commerce portals focused on the automobile market, such as <keyword id="2947589" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Droom">Droom</keyword>, <keyword id="1945738" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cardekho">Cardekho</keyword>, <keyword id="11077358" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="and-olx">and Olx</keyword> have put consumers and the user experience in the spotlight helping the manufacturers attract more users. Besides, the growing base of internet and smartphone users will further boost the digital transformation, and lead to an <keyword id="6374534" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="increase">increase</keyword> in expanding the market size of the e-commerce portals. "The strong emergence and acceptance of the online channel have provided an impetus to seamless solutions, price discovery, transparency, digital real-time payments along with certification on the quality of the vehicle for the consumers in the auto sector," said Rahul Kapur, Partner, Growth at Grant Thornton Bharat. According to the analysis report, since last year, Maruti Suzuki saw a five-fold increase in <keyword id="6357824" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="sales">sales</keyword> through digital means which now stand at 20 per cent of their total sales. "These changes in consumer's buying and research preferences signal a shift for the auto sector, as Covid19 played a big part in the online channel gaining traction." "Technology-enabled innovations like secure digital payments, hyper-logical logistics, analytics-driven customer engagement, increasing consumer awareness and digital advertisements are likely to support the growth going forward." As per the report, other factors such as rising middle class and young population with increasing disposable incomes will contribute towards growing the sector. Furthermore, ease of owning a vehicle through the availability of multiple financing options as well as reduction in vehicle ownership tenure due to regulatory rules in some states, cited the report as other growth inducing factors. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/nokia-x20-specifications-nokia-new-phones-price-in-india/articleshow/81981039.cms">Six new Nokia smartphones announced – price, specifications and availability details you should know</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/founders-take-note-heres-why-most-startups-fail/articleshow/81981138.cms">Founders, take note: here’s why most startups fail</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/google-phone-app-now-lets-you-record-calls-automatically-from-unknown-numbers/articleshow/81982791.cms">Google Phone app now lets you record calls automatically from unknown numbers</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/adar-poonawalla-serum-institute-of-india-has-bought-stake-policybazaar/articleshow/81985425.cms">Serum Institute of India buys into IPO-bound insurance unicorn PolicyBazaar, as True North sells part stake in secondary sale</a>

E-commerce and digitisation to accelerate India's auto sector growth, says report

<ul><li>A draft policy for India’s burgeoning <keyword id="35621" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="e-commerce">e-commerce</keyword> sector is expected to be finalised by the end of the year. </li><li>A key proposal calls for opening up e-commerce firms to 49% foreign ownership, only if they source domestically-produced goods. </li><li>Since 2016, the government has allowed 100% foreign ownership in firms that employ the marketplace model, like <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>. </li></ul> A draft policy for India’s burgeoning e-commerce sector has been in the works for a while. While a government committee, comprising nine sub-groups and led by Suresh Prabhu, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, is putting the finishing touches to the policy, a number of key proposals of have been revealed. And one, in particular, concerns the government’s “Make in India” scheme. An FDI-focused taskforce led by Rita Teaotia, the secretary of the Commerce Ministry, has suggested allowing e-commerce platforms that utilise an “inventory model” to be as much as 49% foreign-owned. Currently, only food retailers are afforded this ownership allowance. E-commerce firms that use the inventory model manage their own inventory and actually own the products that are put up for sale, selling them to consumers directly. However, foreign entities need to source these products domestically and the founder of the business needs to be an Indian resident. The move will likely give small-and-medium enterprises a boost and attract even greater investment to India’s e-commerce sector. The proposal will require the creation of an agency tasked with accrediting “made in India” products. Currently, e-commerce platforms that have even a minimal foreign ownership aren’t allowed to deploy the business-to-consumer model. Since 2016, the government has allowed 100% foreign ownership in firms that employ marketplace models, like Flipkart, which was recently purchased by Walmart. Companies employing the marketplace model act as facilitators between buyers and sellers. So, Flipkart doesn’t directly sell the product but gives registered companies a chance to sell their products. A national regulator The government committee has submitted a number of other proposals. These include a recommendation that calls for the data of Indian consumers be stored “exclusively” in India within two years. This precludes data not collected in India and the recommendation is line with the draft data protection bill released by the by the Srikrishna panel earlier. Additionally, the draft policy also calls for the establishment of a national regulator for the e-commerce industry. This will be vital to ensuring that the interests of consumers and small businesses are safeguarded, especially amid fears that India’s e-commerce sector would be flooded with foreign-made products. The regulator will also ensure that all foreign investment caps are complied with. The e-commerce policy is currently being fine-tuned, before being opened up to stakeholder consultations. It is expected to be finalised by the end of the year.

India may loosen FDI rules in the e-commerce sector to give “Make in India” a boost

Ready to take full advantage of the current market situation, both eCommerce companies and brick-and-mortar retailers want to make maximum profit and debating over who can be tagged as a marketplace. Both share different views over Foreign Direct Investment (<keyword id="44528" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="FDI">FDI</keyword>) in online stores. 
 eCommerce companies such as Amazon, Flipkart and <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> operate as marketplaces in India thus allowing any retailer or trader to sell goods on their platform. But companies such as <keyword id="64373" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Shoppers-Stop">Shoppers Stop</keyword>, <keyword id="6398216" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Tesco">Tesco</keyword>, <keyword id="6357823" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Big-Bazaar">Big Bazaar</keyword>, <keyword id="58448" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Reliance-Retail">Reliance Retail</keyword> and others work only with their chosen vendors, which makes them closed marketplaces. 
 
The two models of retail - online and offline - have different business models and cannot be looked upon with the same lens, said Aamir Jariwala, secretary, E-commerce Coalition of India, which represents firms such as YepMe, Ferns n Petals and IndiaMart, told the Economic Times. 
 Among all eCommerce companies, only <keyword id="6354743" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Amazon-India">Amazon India</keyword> supports opening up online retail to FDI. 
 <keyword id="113282" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Retailers-Association-of-India">Retailers Association of India</keyword> (RAI), a lobby organisation for companies such as Reliance Retail and <keyword id="44949" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Future-group">Future Group</keyword>, has demanded a clarification from the government about what constitutes a marketplace and sought status equivalent to their online rivals, as several large offline retailers, too, explore opening online fronts. 
 
Many of these online stores that could make use of foreign capital are demanding opening up India's ecommerce sector to 100% FDI. But the move is being opposed by larger online marketplaces such as Flipkart and Snapdeal. The government is hearing various retail industry representatives before framing its policy. 
 
While, traditional retailers such as Shoppers Stop and BigBazaar are putting up a united front with RAI. "A lot of our members are either already running or want to open online channels and get access to foreign capital. This ambiguity on 'retail marketplaces' creates a sense of risk," said Kumar Rajagopalan, chief executive at the lobby group. 
 
Offline retailers are also demanding that the government not differentiate within the retail sector by sales channel for drafting FDI regulations. "Creation of a policy on FDI just for online or offline retail is very myopic. It will create an imbalance in the sector," Rajagopalan said. 
 
Ecommerce firms argue that they will lose a good share of the market due to such policies. 
 
Nasir Jamal, secretary general at ECAI, said financial and strategic investors would flock to offline retail if the government equates online and offline retailers with respect to FDI. "Inventory-led ecommerce companies are facing a capital crunch, and are on the lookout for funds and they also need support," he said. 
 "Offline and online retail is converging and the government should precipitate this by having similar policies," said Nitin Gupta, CEO of <keyword id="1493567" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="PayU-India">PayU India</keyword>, owned by South Africa's <keyword id="1634215" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Naspers-Group">Naspers Group</keyword>. 
 
India's ecommerce trade accounts for 2% of the overall retail sector, which grosses over 31.7 lakh crore ($500 billion) annually. The country's online retail sector grew to $12 billion last year. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Fearing competition, Flipkart, Snapdeal oppose 100% FDI in India’s eCommerce sector

India’s <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="economy">economy</keyword> doesn’t look rosy at the moment, but the new avenues opening up are making the overall situation more promising than before. For instance, Internet penetration is on the rise across the country and that must be good news for e-commerce investors. 
 As the world’s second largest populated country, India is on its way to get past the US in terms of Internet penetration, claims a study. Now, this could be an interesting opportunity for <keyword id="44749" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Foreign-Direct-Investment">foreign direct investment</keyword> (<keyword id="44528" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="FDI">FDI</keyword>) in e-commerce. 
 Although Internet penetration in India has not reached even 16% of its total population, the number of people with access to the Internet is nearly 10 times of the total population of <keyword id="6355478" type="COUNTRY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Australia">Australia</keyword>. India crossed the 200 million Internet user mark by October 2013 and the number is projected to reach 243 million users by mid-2014, turning all of them into potential e-commerce customers. The US currently has 207 million Internet users, with China boasting a good 300 million Internet users to date. 
 Consulting firm <keyword id="574638" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="McKinsey-Company">McKinsey &amp; Company</keyword> estimates there will be 500 million Internet users in India by the year 2015. In whatever way one may like to interpret it, this data would spell OPPORTUNITY for e-commerce, its innovators and investors. 
 
Just like other countries, e-commerce in India has been through ups and downs. In the early 21st century, the country had reached the pinnacle of the dotcom boom and then fell prey to the bubble burst. The rise and fall of dotcoms also saw the sector moving towards stabilisation, treading slowly and steadily but with definite steps. 
 The country has been a hotbed of IT innovations while some of the super young brains with bright entrepreneurial streak are steering the course of e-commerce in India. According to CRISIL Research, a unit of the Mumbai-based ratings firm, <keyword id="234798" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="CRISIL-Ltd">CRISIL Ltd</keyword>, the number of e-commerce companies in India will increase with their revenues tripling over the next three years. 
 
The prediction is based on the fact that revenues of e-commerce firms grew 56% annually between FY2008 and FY2013. However, India’s appetite for digital business is growing consistently and the testimony lies in the fact that the country embracing Internet-based commerce is estimated to have gone up by a good 30% in 2014, from the $12.6 billion market in the previous year. 
 These projections have attracted a lot of attention from e-commerce investors, especially from those outside India. All over the world, countries are looking at opportunities to bring in some bright spots through market-based economies. While the socio-political situation in <keyword id="1009187" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="the-middle">the Middle</keyword> East looks volatile, India makes for a very feasible investment destination with its majority being young population who have access to high levels of disposable income. 
 With more investors calling for FDI relaxation in the e-commerce sector, Indian authorities had recently initiated a discussion to understand the impact of foreign participation in this space. FDI in e-commerce was broached by big players such as <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> and Wal-Mart. 
 
When the discussion is brought to the table, the authorities will consider stakeholders’ views regarding the advantages and the disadvantages of having FDI in e-com space. Currently, India has not created any avenue for foreign e-commerce companies to do business in the country. The only form of FDI allowed is in the physical retail space. When India brought in sweeping changes in the retail space and allowed FDI investors in supermarkets, online retailers were left out. 
 
Having said that, foreign companies can engage in business-to-business (B2B) or wholesale e-commerce in India. That is an area where foreign players can enter with ease. 
 Younger consumers make for a large chunk of e-commerce drivers in a country, set to become world’s No 1 in terms of population. Liberal economic reforms and consistent growth in <keyword id="35050" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="gdp">GDP</keyword> (although not that impressive in terms of numbers), along with its ‘IT Superpower’ status, have enabled India’s youth to gain access to large disposable incomes. 
 
It is one prime factor that has helped e-commerce start-ups (with solid business plans and growth propositions) turn into big success stories. The likes of Flipkart and Snapdeal have become synonymous with India’s growing penchant for digital business models. 
 This apart, mobiles happen to be another propeller of the Indian success <keyword id="45535" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Saga">saga</keyword> in this sector. A large urban population and a sizeable chunk of the rural populace have access to mobiles across the price range and don’t mind spending a good part of their income on buying these devices. As a result, almost every e-commerce company in India runs a mobile platform now and has created specific mobile apps to ensure user-friendly interface and hassle-free transactions. 
 If FDI in e-commerce is authorised in India, it can help maximise the potential of the sector and thus drive economic growth. What will help the sector reach its full potential is still a matter of debate. But when foreign direct <keyword id="6362476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="investments">investments</keyword> are allowed, this business sector will certainly throw up more opportunities for newer ideas, which can blossom into better deals for end-users.

E-commerce In India Looks Inviting Now For FDI

<ul><li>The future of e-commerce is Personalised, Transparent and Responsible, says Havas Group Prosumer Report. </li><li>68% of Prosumers expect their e-commerce shopping experience to be tailored through personalisation and AI.</li></ul>The Covid-19 led economic slowdown has been catastrophic for most sectors, barring a few. The e-commerce sector belongs to the latter. The pandemic and its aftereffects led to a complete transformation and a massive surge in the e-commerce sector. Therefore, decoding the ‘Future of e-commerce’ through structural research became a function of paramount importance for us at the Havas Group. Thus, the network announced the launch of its recent Prosumer Report, a global perspective on the future of e-commerce that captures information and insights on the sector, done through the network's proprietary research tool. Drawing on responses from 3,000 consumers from Brazil, China, France, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, this recently launched survey examines the upcoming trends in the e-commerce experience. Talking about the report, Pritha Dasgupta, CMO, <keyword id="7001513" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="havas-group-india" source="Orion">Havas Group India</keyword>, said, “Prosumer is Havas Group’s global report that is released 3 to 4 times every year, each one covering a specific topic. It is one of the longest-running thought leadership properties of Havas Group that has become instrumental in predicting emerging trends in consumer behaviour.” She further added, “Over the last two years, digital adoption has been extremely fast and has become a way of life. If we specifically look at the e-commerce sector, it has become a breeding ground of innovation and in the last two years every leading company in this sector has grown aggressively. Our latest Prosumer Report gives a clear direction to the industry of where this e-commerce sector is headed, and also identifies trends of the sector.” Prosumers are the leading-edge 15-20% of consumers, who are First to the market (usually 6-18 months ahead of the mainstream), Forward-thinking, Influential, Proactive and Socially and/or environmentally conscious. It is this key section of consumers that our research studies. Throughout the pandemic, e-commerce has clearly established itself as the new retail norm as more than 8 in 10 Prosumers tell us they prefer the online shopping experience over the traditional format of in-store purchasing. However, 1 out of 3 respondents claims that their e-commerce experiences are quite boring. Havas Group’s Prosumer report deep dived into the e-commerce sector and came up with a few ways to upgrade the e-commerce experience by: Focusing on new rules of eCommerce: This includes free shipping &amp; returns, seamless &amp; fast delivery, customer ratings, loyalty discounts and purchases recommendations. Having a purpose beyond clicks: e-commerce must be about more than just access, it is about curating products that are good for society. Being on the right side of data history: Privacy is gaining momentum so data education should be mandatory. Expanding from a place to buy to a place to socialise: As e-commerce is becoming more human and is moving to social, making the experience more community-driven will bring results. An over-arching theme that is evident through the research is that the e-commerce sector still has a long way to go to address the gap in consumer expectations. If there is one aspect that the younger generation demands, it is a better consumer experience despite acknowledging the convenience that e-commerce has to offer. For this, the Prosumer report throws light on some rather interesting India specific trends that will go a long way in making the sector shine: <ul><li>The rise in community shopping experience: Post-pandemic, the desire to replicate in-store/mall experience has led prosumers to seek community shopping experiences from the <keyword id="863306" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="e-commerce-industry" source="Orion">e-commerce industry</keyword>. In this context, we see a spike in demand for services such as the ability to shop on social media (66%) and the ability to interact with fellow shoppers (68%). </li><li>The era of Transparency: Contrary to popular euphemism, consumers are not averse to data sharing. In fact, they demand transparency regarding what data is being collected. In this context, we see 97% of the prosumers rating privacy as the key attribute and 83% ready to boycott brands that do not have a transparent data collection policy. </li><li>Personalised experience: 68% of Prosumers expect their e-commerce shopping experience to be tailored through personalisation and AI. </li><li>Rise in responsible e-commerce practices: 95% of prosumers demand eco-friendly packaging and 69% want to see e-commerce organisations commit to sustainable practices across the value chain.</li></ul>The Havas Group Prosumer report makes it evidently clear that e-commerce is no longer just about business transactions; it’s about customer empowerment and with the e-commerce market touching $84 billion in July 2021, this is a sector one just can’t ignore. Meeting the needs of consumers will ensure that the e-commerce sector moves from strength to strength. It’s where the future is.

95% of consumers demand eco-friendly packaging; 69% want to see e-com commit to sustainable practices across the value chain: Havas Report

If you are looking for a job in sector such as wholesale, retail (including e-Commerce), utilities -mainly logistics - and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=transportation">transportation</a>, there is a good news for you. These sectors are likely to hire aggressively in the fourth quarter, ending December 2015. 
 
Globally, Indian employers are the most upbeat on hiring plans in the Q4, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey. 
 
The survey also said that more than 41% of employers in India would be looking at increasing hiring numbers for the fourth quarter as compared to the quarter ending September. 
 
The survey covered around 5,000 employers in India and found that about 45% and 44% of employers in the wholesale &amp; retail sector (including e-Commerce) and the transportation &amp; utilities sector, respectively, are looking at increased hiring in the next quarter compared to the previous one. 
 
From a regional perspective, around 42% employers in the eastern region anticipate the most opportunities for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=job+seekers+">job seekers</a> in the months ahead. 
 
Moreover, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=e-Commerce">e-Commerce</a> sector will provide more job opportunities. “With the onset of the festival season, there is a renewed focus on employing additional staff to boost businesses and greater hiring is expected across all domains," said AG Rao, group managing director at <keyword id="652409" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="ManpowerGroup-India">ManpowerGroup India</keyword>. 
 In view of the positive outlook for the <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="economy">economy</keyword>, e-Commerce firms are ramping up their workforce across functions, particularly engineers and other specialists with an intention to be technology, product and engineering-driven companies, added Rao. 
 <keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ShopClues">Shopclues</keyword>.com, for instance, is planning to add 1,200 employees to its team of 800, while <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal+">Snapdeal</a> is looking at doubling its headcount of 5,000 by FY16. 
 
"We have robust hiring plans in place for the coming months. Most e-Commerce companies at this stage are busy ramping up their teams," said ShopClues co-founder, Sanjay Sethi. 
 
At the same time some industry sectors reported weaker hiring plans when compared with the fourth quarter of 2014. 
 Mining &amp; construction sector employers report the most notable decline of nine percentage points while outlooks are seven and four percentage points weaker in the <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="finance">finance</keyword>, <keyword id="35450" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="insurance">insurance</keyword> and <keyword id="6354553" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="real-estate">real estate</keyword> sector and the services sector, respectively. 
 
However, while comparing Q4 outlook with the Q3 2015, hiring intentions remain relatively stable in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=finance%2C+insurance+%26+real+estate+sector+">finance, insurance &amp; real estate sector</a> and the mining &amp; construction sector. 
 
French multinational, Saint Gobain, is also looking at adding more to its manufacturing and marketing teams. "India is a very important market for Saint Gobain and in the coming months, we hire for new positions in manufacturing and marketing," said P Padmakumar, team leader &amp; head -human resources, flat glass business. 
 Globally, ManpowerGroup interviewed nearly 59,000 employers across 42 countries and territories to forecast fourth quarter <keyword id="6357125" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="labour-market">labour market</keyword> activity . 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Be ready with your updated CVs! It'll be raining jobs beginning September

Mumbai, Jan 26 () The Indian government is responsive to concerns expressed by businesses but needs to do more to attract investments into sectors such as e-commerce, the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) has said.
 The comments from the lobby grouping come after there was a sharp criticism of Goyal for saying Amazon was not doing India a favour by the investment announcement. India's GDP growth is set to slow to a decadal low of 5 per cent for 2019-20 and all eyes are set on the strategy deployed by the government in the upcoming Budget.
 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said the e-commerce major will invest USD 1 billion (over Rs 7,000 crore) in digitising small and medium businesses in India.
 Declining to comment specifically on the impact on investors because of Goyal's comments, UKIBC Chief Executive Officer Richard Heald told here that the e-commerce sector has a tremendous potential, especially for the smaller businesses, who get a platform to sell their wares.
 "I am a great fan of e-commerce and I think that e-commerce is misunderstood to a certain extent and it benefits the general public and those people who operate within the supply chain in ways that are not popularly understood," he said.
 Heald said Mukesh Ambani-promoted RIL also has plans to enter the e-commerce segment through a different business model and one can have her own preferences on business models.
 "Encouraging investments into India is important, encouraging the e-commerce sector is important because it benefits small businesses disproportionately to large businesses," he said adding that British businesses may not be "startled" at the posturing.
 India represents a large opportunity for the British businesses and even a slower 4.8 per cent GDP growth is much faster than what the UK or Europe is witnessing, he said.
 When asked if the government is responsive in India, he answered in the affirmative and said, "What I found striking (in conversations with government officials) was that increasingly, it is a two-way dialogue. The Indian government wants to understand and engage, it wants to understand what the operating issues are and get those addressed, positives as well as negatives."
 Welcoming the cut in corporate taxes, Heald advocated a relaxation in fiscal deficit targets in the upcoming Budget and added that the UKIBC will keenly watch the narrative on growth being set by the Indian government and look for specific measures on rural poverty alleviation and infrastructure spends.
 When asked about social sector troubles experienced in India, which have made billionaire George Soros to speak out at Davos last week, Heald said the UKIBC members will not be too perturbed by those concerns.
 He reasoned that commercial success is the most important aspect for a business when it makes a call to investment and not other "optics".
 "From the business point of view, I am not going to say it (social issues) is not relevant, but not high up the list," he said.
 When asked if there is over-pessimism about India, he initially said it would be "presumptuous" to say so.
 "I have huge admiration for India. Since 1947, you have survived and prospered as a country which is secular, is diverse. Your history is extraordinary. Clearly, there is something there that you have to foster and you have to develop," he said. AA HRS

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