Evolution Of E Commerce In India
Evolution of e-commerce in India
Creating the bricks behind the clicks
2 PwC
Foreword
Acknowledgement
Recent years have seen a remarkable transformation in the way India shops and trades. E-commerce has taken the world of retail by storm and captivated the imagination of an entire generation of entrepreneurs, with e-commerce ventures with various business and commercial models. The explosive growth in the last few years has already catapulted the biggest firms among these ventures past the billion-dollar territory. The sector has grown three times in four years to nearly 12.6 billion USD in 2013. Various industry estimates project that the sector will further growth five to seven times over the next four to five years.
On behalf of ASSOCHAM I would like to thank the team at PwC for preparing a comprehensive and neutral white paper ‘Evolution of e-commerce in India: Creating the bricks behind the clicks.‘
The e-commerce industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country today, spurring first generation entrepreneurs, large scale manufacturing by SMEs, jobs and most importantly impacting the infrastructure growth of the country.
Online retail, while today representing a small fraction of the e-commerce space is one of the fastest growing segments.
It is also the most challenging in fulfilling its fundamental proposition of transcending physical boundaries to deliver a variety of products to the customer’s doorstep. Logistics and infrastructure in e-retailing becomes the very backbone of the fulfilment network and the basis on which stringent service level expectations are set and met, and customer mind-space among competing alternatives is won. In India, these are arguably the weakest links, and therefore the enhanced need for greater attention and management bandwidth to these critical functions.
We hope that this paper will be read by all the relevant stakeholders of the industry and that they will benefit from its extensive research.
D S Rawat
Creating the bricks behind the clicks
2 PwC
Foreword
Acknowledgement
Recent years have seen a remarkable transformation in the way India shops and trades. E-commerce has taken the world of retail by storm and captivated the imagination of an entire generation of entrepreneurs, with e-commerce ventures with various business and commercial models. The explosive growth in the last few years has already catapulted the biggest firms among these ventures past the billion-dollar territory. The sector has grown three times in four years to nearly 12.6 billion USD in 2013. Various industry estimates project that the sector will further growth five to seven times over the next four to five years.
On behalf of ASSOCHAM I would like to thank the team at PwC for preparing a comprehensive and neutral white paper ‘Evolution of e-commerce in India: Creating the bricks behind the clicks.‘
The e-commerce industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country today, spurring first generation entrepreneurs, large scale manufacturing by SMEs, jobs and most importantly impacting the infrastructure growth of the country.
Online retail, while today representing a small fraction of the e-commerce space is one of the fastest growing segments.
It is also the most challenging in fulfilling its fundamental proposition of transcending physical boundaries to deliver a variety of products to the customer’s doorstep. Logistics and infrastructure in e-retailing becomes the very backbone of the fulfilment network and the basis on which stringent service level expectations are set and met, and customer mind-space among competing alternatives is won. In India, these are arguably the weakest links, and therefore the enhanced need for greater attention and management bandwidth to these critical functions.
We hope that this paper will be read by all the relevant stakeholders of the industry and that they will benefit from its extensive research.
D S Rawat