Tag: india m-commerce

Mobile commerce is moving up at a meaningful rate in India

| August 25, 2014

Snapdeal is showing rapid growth in its online sales over smartphones and tablets.

The Indian shopping marketplace, Snapdeal, has seen quite the difference over the last year in the percentage of online sales that is being brought in through mobile commerce as opposed to using a personal computer.

This most rapidly growing shopping site in India had seen only 5 percent of its $400 million in sales from mobile shoppers in 2013.

This year, the annual gross merchandise volume broke the $1 billion mark, according to Kunal Bahl, the company’s CEO, and mobile commerce is now accounting for 60 percent of its sales. Clearly, this is a tremendous rise in the share of the sales that are coming from smartphones and tablets in India. That said, this is a trend that is being sought after by online marketplaces around the world, including the giants such as Amazon.

Amazon recently revealed that it would be investing an additional $2 billion into its mobile commerce marketplace in India.

Mobile Commerce - IndiaEqually, Flipkart, which is a privately held company, has announced a similar investment of $1 billion. Snapdeal has also been speaking informally with American bankers about the opportunity for an IPO in the future.

This is a clear indication that when it comes to the Indian online shopping marketplace, m-commerce is starting to play a very important role. Moreover, this type of insight suggests that retailers that want to remain competitive will need to make sure that they are providing a strong mobile optimized experience so that consumers can shop over their favorite devices.

There has been some hesitation among certain companies, simply because there is risk involved. This remains a relatively immature market, as much as it has been taking off rather quickly. That said, because the trend is clearly showing that people in India are more than willing to make purchases on their smartphones and tablets, it is becoming increasingly evident that this is a channel that is likely to stick around and only become increasingly important, as opposed to being a passing fad.

Mobile commerce is soon to be a highly competitive and meaningful market and companies that fail to keep up may miss out on a considerable opportunity.

M-commerce expected to warm up over the summer

| April 24, 2013

According to a recent study performed in the Indian market, there are hot products sold over mobile.

eBay India has released the results of their summertime m-commerce survey and has discovered that the channel will be exploding with shoppers over the hottest months of the year, and they know exactly what they want to buy.

The scorching heat appears to be adding some warmth to the smartphone shopping marketplace.

Within the m-commerce survey, eBay discovered that more than fifty percent of the population intends to make purchases over their smartphones or tablets, typically from the comfort of their own homes. They are choosing this alternative over having to leave their homes to deal with the sweltering heat this summer in order to head to the local mall.

Fifty nine percent of the m-commerce participants said they wanted to shop over smartphones and tablets.

The reason cited for this preference toward staying in and shopping over m-commerce instead of going in person to the mall was that they would be able to stay out of the heat and avoid the overcrowding in the market areas.M-commerce Summer

The survey also identified the top products that are expected to be purchased over the m-commerce channel. The research respondents said that they would be most likely to buy cotton apparel, shorts, t-shirts, caps, and sunglasses. Among the colors that are most likely to be purchased are green, blue, white, cream, and black.

According to the eBay India country manager, Muralikrishnan B., the adoption of m-commerce “has increased significantly in the country due to multiple factors such as enhanced 3G penetration and availability of affordable smartphones.” He added that this activity has become one of the preferred option for many Indians, particularly among those in the smaller cities.

This has become increasingly obvious as a recent m-commerce study that the company also performed has shown that 49 percent of the users of the online marketplace are from non-metropolitan cities. He added that because eBay is one of the pioneers into this channel within the country, they have considered it to be truly promising to watch the shift toward mobile in India.