E-commerce is the short form for electronic commerce which serves the purpose of selling and purchasing of various products as per the liking of the buyer and seller. E-commerce can be done by several ways such as by the use of mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. It is in turn driven by technological advances and is the largest sector in the field of electronics industry.
E-commerce solves the problem of business in a way that is not worrying about distance and time. The Indian ecommerce market seems to be rising over the years and it is soon going to overtake United States in the ranking which will make India the second largest e-commerce market in the world. By 2023, the economic returns from e-commerce is supposed to grow by four times to Rs. 10,48,350 crores.
Online shoppers are expected to reach to about 220 million and the online retailers deliver to about 20,000 pin codes in India. The trigger in the online shopping and the vast increase in demand for e-commerce market in India is mainly due to the excessive usage of the smartphone industry. Smartphones are now accessible to every second individual in India and the number of users of smartphones seems to be increasing in India over the years passed. India is ranked amongst the top 20 amongst the countries who use smartphones excessively.
The Government of India has regulatory polices and regulations regarding the B2B AND B2C e-commerce sector in 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). It has a proper draft to regulate the e-commerce sector which was introduced in 2019. Due to the systematic policy of the FDI, the online retailers find it easy to enter the Indian market and gain profits. Due to the rising internet users and better economic performance over the years, are the two important criterions for the flourishing of the market in e-commerce. The Indian Government by 2025, will have a trillion-dollar online economy.
This article will consist of some of the top 10 e-commerce markets which have been used frequently in the year 2020. The article not only consists of global e-commerce online shops. It has some local online brands which have competed with the global online shops and made a position amongst the top 10. Following are the online shops:
Top 10 Indian E-Commerce Platforms
Amazon India:
It is an American based multinational retail company founded in the year 1994 by John Benzos. The headquarter is in Seattle, California. Amazon sells a variety of products ranging from electronic and kitchen appliances, clothing, books, groceries, etc. Being popular in the global market, Amazon has created a huge name for itself in the market and every country it is accessible to. Amazon has various features such as attractive sales and discounts to attract customers. It has an advanced feature that is of being a prime member. A prime member can be accessible to get a delivery within 1-2 days from the day of order. It has about 365.5 million visits per month.
Flipkart:
Flipkart is the leading market when it comes to e-commerce in India. Founded in 2007, it has been in an immense competition with Amazon although it being a very popular and a well known American online shop. It has the headquarters in Bengaluru, India by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. The products sold in Flipkart are like Amazon which makes the marketing and competition immense. They have products ranging from electronic appliances, fashion, beauty products, books, etc. Flipkart initially started off as just a book retail shop. In the year 2018, one of the largest online retail companies named Walmart has bought about 77% shares of Flipkart for USD 16 billion. The monthly visits of this site are about 221.5 million. Flipkart has extended its base and acquisition by acquiring Myntra and PhonePe.
Snapdeal:
Snapdeal is an online e-commerce shopping platform founded in February 2010 by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. The headquarter is in New Delhi. This platform offers products from fashion, electronic appliance, home décor, etc. Snapdeal has several international e-commerce markets investing in their growth to attain popularity in the Indian platform. The international markets which invested are Alibaba Group, Foxconn and SoftBank. The monthly visits of this platform is 83.5 million. Snapdeal has extended its market by acquiring other online retail shops such as Freecharge and Unicommerce.
IndiaMart:
It was founded in 1999 with its headquarters in Noida an online B2B marketplace was developed. It is developed as a competitor of other international e-commerce markets such as Alibaba. this platform allows suppliers and manufacturers to directly display their product to the consumers. The transaction could be done via this platform and is safe. In the year 2014, the group has introduced another retail platform called Tolexo. The monthly visits to this platform are 42.8 million.
BookMyShow:
BookMyShow is an online platform for people who wish to purchase and book movie tickets online ad quicker. With this platform now, one doesn’t need to wait at the long queues of the movie hall. This process is faster and easier. The has extended its selling of tickets in the field of music performances, sport events apart from movies. Due to its immense success in India, the market has expanded its market in other parts of Asia such as Indonesia, United Arab Emirates Sri Lanka as well as out of Asia in West Indies. The platform gets a roughly month visit of 43.4 million or more. It was found in the year 1999 by Ashish Hemrajani alongside his partners Parikshit Dar, and Rajesh Balpande. The office headquarters are in Mumbai, India.
Myntra:
Myntra is an online leading fashion store launched in the year 2007 in India. The main office of Myntra is in Bengaluru, India. It has made its online base very strong throughout the year and faces competition from several clothing and lifestyle brands, yet it has made its place in the market and seems to be achieving its target and attracts customers through several means. Through its mobile application, Myntra has set its base for a lot of customers and has been competing with another online brand called Jabong. The monthly visits of Myntra is around 27.8 million. Flipkart has taken over Myntra in the year 2014. It was founded by Mukesh Bansal alongside Vineet Saxena and Ashutosh Lawania.
Firstcry:
It is a specialized e-commerce platform specially made for the kids to purchase their baby products and clothes. It has products ranging in all prices and has all the items that are required for a growing child. It was found in the year 2010 by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha. The headquarters are in Pune. It sells clothes for the kids of different brands with amazing offers and prices. It has expanded its store to numerous Indian cities now and set a huge customer base by now. The monthly visits of this site is around 16.1 million visits.
Nykaa:
Since its launching 2012 Nykaa has emerged as the biggest cosmetic and beauty retail online shop all over the country. It has a monthly visit of 13.7 million. It has the headquarters at Mumbai which is founded by Falguni Nayar. The online retail shop has products of different brands of all price ranges selling to its customers. The customers can pay through this platform making it a safer online mode of transaction. It has multiple brands and several offers to attract its customers all over the country. It has more than 1200 brands which are truly genuine and true to their customer. There are around 6 warehouses of this brand. It has varied products from women to men personal and wellness care products such as make up items, hair products, facial items, body care, etc. Recently, this platform has also started selling clothing for women and it has gained immense popularity since then. The customer base for this platform has been increasing since then.
1mg:
This online platform of pharmacy has proven to be an effective pharmacy for the people since its launching. After its launching, healthcare is now accessible and affordable by people from and of all arenas. Founded in the year 2015 in Gurugram, Haryana, India. This platform benefits the huge population of India by directing them to proper medical guidance. It serves as a platform to direct the population and the Indian market with proper guidance with medicines or products from their shop. The users can find drugs by ailment, class, companies, and brands. Users can easily find information about any medicines which has given to them by the doctor. It has immensely helped a lot of people and has been proven to be very reliable. The monthly visits of this platform are about 7.45 million. The diagnostics of this platform is proven to be transparent and cost effective as well. The medicines are tested in the lab carefully.
Paytm Mall:
This is an online platform where suppliers and manufacturers can sell items such as clothing. Home décor, electronic appliances, groceries, toys for kids, and more. They can directly contact their customers and ask for payment. Payment as well can be done securely through this app in Paytm. Third agents or parties are allowed to intervene in this platform. The monthly visits of this platform are about 5.9 million. The main idea to create this platform was to make the economy digital and cashless. The headquarters of this company is in Noida and founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Paytm Mall is a small part from the parent company Paytm. There are about 1.4 lakh registered sellers from which the buyers can buy. Paytm Mall was launched in February 2017 by its parent company Paytm. This is the B2C model which has been inspired by another Chinese model Tmall which is B2C as well. The registered sellers have been well verified by Paytm before it started to sell. It has more than 17 centers in India. Initially to set its market it had taken investments from Alibaba group and SAIF Partners.
Future of E-Commerce in India
India is still yet to develop in the field of technology and e-commerce marketing. Although the competition is very fierce and immense, it is yet commendable to see the Indian local online brands competing with the foreign brands and making their place in the top 10 e-commerce marketplace. Due to the size of the Indian market, a lot of other new developing local brands have yet to reach in the market even though they take only s small certain share in the economy. There are some other online e-commerce sites as well such as MakeMyTrip and Yatra who often vary from 8 – 26 million visits per day. These platforms are extensively for booking tickets via air or land. It has been making the tourism industry in India vast. All these online retail shops are verified by proper sources and then only have come to the e-commerce platform. In India, the number of people using this e-commerce platform and internet users are increasing day by day because it is a faster process with n wastage of time and the prices are also seen to be more flexible. Hence there certainly is a future for e-commerce in the country.
Conclusion
Online shopping saves money and time for the customers. It also makes it very easy for the customers to compare clothes of different brands easily and this process of online shopping makes it a lot more convenient for online shoppers. The e-commerce growth in India seems to be only rising at a steady slope and does not seem to fall or decay at any given moment or soon. To save its local retail online shops, the Government of India set up new regulations for International e-commerce platforms that the foreign companies will be forbidden from selling any products from vendors that they control or have equity stakes in, and it is forbidden to enter into exclusivity deals between vendors and websites. This was a counter to Amazon and Walmart’s influence in the Indian market and not to disadvantage the small traders.