The Indian e-commerce space is booming, with the size of the market set to leapfrog over South Korea, Russia and Brazil to nearly double to touch $30.3 billion by 2016. This would outpace the rest of the global industry, which would grow by 52.3 per cent in the corresponding period. This would be far higher than the largest e-commerce market, the US, which would see 38 per cent growth during the period, as well as other developed markets like the UK (33.8 per cent).
But it will still remain a minnow in the global landscape, according to data from independent market research company Emarketer, which indicates that its share of the global industry will rise from 1.3 per cent in 2013 to 1.6 per cent in 2016.
The rising star in the e-commerce space is undoubtedly China, which is expected to see sales rise by one-and-a-half times during the period to emerge as the second-largest global arena for business-to-consumer sales over the internet. The growth would be far more muted in countries such as Australia and South Korea, which have already witnessed significant e-commerce penetration and are close to saturation thanks to their small populations.
In India, on the other hand, the huge population, growing internet penetration levels and rising incomes are set to act as an elixir for the industry. In particular, just 10 million of its 137 million internet users shop online at present and 80 per cent of sales are for travel services; this presents a huge opportunity.