With the new academic year approaching, my son walked up to me asking for a new and bigger school bag that has to be blue in color with a superhero figure. My mind went into an overdrive – when, which shops to check, where will we park the car - the specification, size and shape of the bag long forgotten. Meanwhile the weekly e-newsletter arrived from two of the online retail sites that I browse often. Both were promoting school bags, water bottles, tiffin box, notebooks and other stationary stuff. How did they know what I was looking for? Sneaky! Technology has truly advanced quite a bit. Analytics and other browsing behavior are being tracked and online footprints cross-mapped to serve us with things that we are either looking for or might be interested in. This is the age of E-commerce.

Recent media news reported on the possibility of Rakuten Inc., a Japanese online retail outfit entering the Indian space where reliable projections suggest about 38 – 40 Million shoppers by 2015 – 16. Changes in lifestyles, fewer kids, technologically sound double income couples, more disposable income, growing consumerism lesser free hours, longer travel and working hours are driving people to the comfort of E-commerce are all contributing to the growth of this segment.

E-commerce typically consists of Business to Consumer B2C and Business to Business B2B. Retail (Books, clothing, accessories, shoes, jewellery, electronics), hospitality, travel, music and videos fall under the B2C domain while online classifieds as promoted by sites like Alibaba.com are B2B type. There are others like matrimonial sites with wedding planning offers.

Today we have many good players in the E-commerce segment with Flipkart and Snapdeal leading the pack. Amazon has also entered the fray. Most of the retail shoppers in India belong to the 19-24 and 25 – 40 age group with female having close to 40% contribution. There are other sites like FashionandYou, Myntra, Yebhi and Caratlane to name a few. Not only are they creating a sea change in the buying behavior and online purchasing trends amongst Indians but generating many lateral job opportunities. The B2B sites like Alibaba and Indiamart have helped many small scale players to access diverse markets and sell their products. Even the buyers now have a choice of connecting with multiple suppliers, comparing, negotiating and getting a sound deal – something that was not so straightforward in the physical world. 

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