What 2019 Packs For Indian E-commerce Industry
In 2019, e-commerce industry will witness more regulations with technology enabled innovations like digital payments, hyper-local logistics, analytics driven customer engagement and digital advertisements to support the growth in the sector
E-commerce has revolutionized the way business is done in India. The Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow $200 billion by 2026 from $38.5 billion as of 2017. This stupendous growth is the result of increasing internet and Smartphone penetration. The current digital transformation in the country is expected to increase India’s total internet user base to 829 million by 2021 from 560.01 million as of September 2018. India’s internet economy is expected to double from $125 billion as of April 2017 to $250 billion by 2020, majorly backed by e-commerce. Considering that the E-commerce industry is here to rule let us look what 2019 has for us:
Regulated Industry
The Indian e-commerce industry is all set to become a regulated industry with the first e-commerce policy being introduced this year. Be it provisions to check the alleged preferential treatment being given to select vendor/s or rules to ensure that cashbacks being offered by online retailers are fair and non-discriminatory, it is fair to say that we are moving towards a more regulated e-commerce industry.
Implications of new FDI rules on E-commerce:
The recent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy on e-commerce as notified by Ministry of Commerce & Industry attempts to provide a level playing field to all players in the ecosystem, including domestic sellers and smaller traders. The clause which restricts the sale of products by a particular entity having stakes by e-commerce marketplace entity would likely disrupt the existing practices of some big e-commerce companies and force them to adjust accordingly. This review of policy on FDI in e-commerce has cleared the confusion on what is an Inventory based model of e-commerce and what defines a Marketplace based model of e-commerce.
The Rise of Social E-Commerce:
Social commerce is likely to influence more purchase decisions in 2019 and drive the next phase of growth for e-commerce companies. New-age e-commerce companies who have placed their bet on resellers would benefit the most with this trend.
The UI/UX focus:
The websites as well app of e-commerce companies will become more interactive for better costumer engagement so that they can have a better online shopping experience. In addition to this, text and image-based product description will give way to video-based product description.
Product Image search
This is likely to be the next big thing in the e-commerce industry, as one would be able to search for products he cannot possibly describe on e-commerce platforms. To put things into perspective, let us imagine, we are looking at a picture of a living room on Instagram and notice a window curtain we really like. With product search into play, we will be able to search for similar products online.
In the conclusion, in 2019, e-commerce industry will witness more regulations with technology enabled innovations like digital payments, hyper-local logistics, analytics driven customer engagement and digital advertisements to support the growth in the sector.