Shoppers from two-three tier cities push India to second rank

Bengaluru, Dec 14 (KNN) India is all set to become second country to have the largest shopper base particularly owing to increase in shoppers from the low-tier cities.

It will upgrade its rank to 2nd from the current 3rd rank after China and the US shortly, said Anurag Mathur, Partner - Consumer Goods & Retail, Bain & Company on Tuesday at Asia's first Internet Commerce summit opens at tech city Bengaluru

“Over 60 percent of the new online shoppers came from the breadth of Bharat and one each in three online shoppers belongs to the low-income segment and less than 25 year age group,” said Mathur speaking at the inaugural session of the sixth edition of the two-day Internet Commerce Summit that commenced today in the tech city of Bengaluru.

The rising penetration of the internet has enabled India to add 40-50 million online shoppers last year in 2021, he said.

In his presiding address, Manish Tiwary, Chairman of the Internet Commerce Summit and Vice President- India Consumer Business, Amazon said that India's transition toward digital economy has made the country the second major digital adapter among digital economies globally.

“Though e-commerce is at nascent 3-4 percent of India's total retail sector, it is playing a vital role in the D2C revolution with digital first brands doing well and the shopping experience becoming highly personalized,” Tiwary said.

Indian e-retail market is estimated to reach about USD 50 billion in 2022 and grow at more than 25 percent per annum to scale to USD 150-170 billion by 2027, which will be fuelled by fashion, grocery and general merchandise and account for up to two-third of e-retail by 2027, Mathur said.

However, the consumer journey is no longer linear with the rising number of online platforms and multiplication of consumer touchpoints, experts said.

Revenue, reputation and retention is becoming a challenge as exceptional customer experience is only going to make people feel, recommend and re-use the brand again, said Prateek Sinha, Partner Experience Consulting, PwC. (KNN Bureau)