E-commerce is rapidly eating into the overall retail sales in India as rise of mobile phones is expected to increase online shoppers to as much as eight crore in 2015, according to a report by eMarketer.
E-commerce sales in India stood at just 0.8 per cent of the overall retail sales in 2014. But it is expected to more than double to 1.7 per cent by this year-end. By 2019, eMarketer expects e-commerce share in Indian retail to touch 4.4 per cent. China already saw 12.4 per cent of retail sales shifting online in 2014. It is expected to have over 33 per cent of its retail sales taking place online by 2019.
The overall e-commerce market this year is expected to grow at an astonishing rate of 129 per cent against overall retail growth of a mere 14 per cent.
Main drivers China, India and Indonesia are the main drivers of growth in the region, with the latter two markets enjoying growth of 129.5 per cent and 65.6 per cent, respectively, in 2015, the eMarketer report said.
In terms of actual numbers, India’s e-commerce sales are expected to grow 129 per cent this year to $14 billion, a sheer 2 per cent compared with China’s $672 billion for 2015.
China alone will account for over 40 per cent of the world’s retail e-commerce sales this year, up nearly 5 percentage points from 2014.
China will continue to gain share of the worldwide market, exceeding 50 per cent in 2018 and reaching 55.1 per cent by 2019, the end of eMarketer’s forecast period.Retail e-commerce sales in Asia-Pacific will hit $877.61 billion in 2015, up 35.7 per cent from 2014. For the first time, the region will not only have the largest digital retail market in the world, but its share of global retail spend will also reach 52.5 per cent — the first time it holds an outright majority of the world market.
This rapid growth from Asia-Pacific predicted in eMarketer’s forecast for retail sales around the world is in part driven by the rising middle-classes in China, India and Indonesia, and the increasing popularity of mobile devices, which is driving more and more people online throughout the region.
India is expected to add over 28 million digital shoppers in 2015 to touch 82.3 million by the year-end.