India has emerged as one of the world’s most promising internet markets, with the second-largest internet user base globally. The increasing number of online shoppers presents a huge growth opportunity for e-commerce and retail companies to explore and utilize as a key component for business growth.

With e-commerce at its peak, mobile commerce is also uniquely positioned to help industry players of all sizes manage their business more efficiently.

According to IBEF, ‘The Indian E-commerce industry has been on an upward growth trajectory and is expected to surpass the US to become the second-largest e-commerce market in the world by 2034. Indian e-commerce sector is poised to reach US$99 billion by 2024 from US$30 billion in 2019, expanding at a 27% CAGR, with grocery and fashion/apparel likely to be the key drivers of incremental growth. 

Key e-commerce trends and insights of StoreHippo Report include:

- Digital footprints amongst the customers increased manifold in 2020

- From Kiranas to large enterprises and from grocery to pharma, a high inclination towards digital channels and D2C was observed this year

- The year also marked the adoption of the Hyper-local e-commerce model in its full swing

- The growth of the B2B e-commerce segment is 200% faster than B2C e-commerce

- This digital wave which is likely to dominate in 2021 as well, will also give rise to trends like agile payment gateways, integration of technologies to meet the deliveries, personalization, and shift towards D2C amongst others

- Festive sales were majorly driven by tier-2 & tier-3 cities

- Many first-time buyers have been also added to the customer base of e-commerce, this year

The e-commerce industry which has been demonstrating unprecedented growth since the past few years has been subject to many new trends.

Hyperlocal E-Commerce Model

As the report states, the advancements in digital services have given the right impetus to a host of brands to adopt the ‘Hyperlocal E-commerce Model’ in order to stay abreast in the market. With the adoption of the Hyperlocal E-Commerce Model, the brands aimed at providing a real in-store experience to the customers to develop a deeper connection with them, which became the need of the hour owing to the outbreak of the pandemic.

M-Commerce

Another most talked about the trend of the year includes the active use of m-commerce. With mobile apps, customers can be easily persuaded to buy more and can be targeted better with personalized offers creating a win-win situation for the retailers. Furthermore, mobiles have remained a constant companion for the people, even when they were locked inside their homes, eventually leading them to binge shop from the safe confines of their homes. This year, about 70-80% of sales were recorded through mobiles.

This year also experienced significant growth in online sales during the festive season. E-tailers experienced about 40-60% growth in sales this festive season, out of which the majority of sales were driven from tier-2 & tier-3 cities.

Automation

Automation has also revamped the business models of the brands, this year. Automation has made both B2B and B2C business models more streamlined, efficient, transparent, and less prone to errors, which has garnered better growth for the brands. Though, the B2B e-commerce segment is growing at a 200% faster rate than the B2C e-commerce segment.  

Sharing his views as to how the year 2020 has been,  Rajiv Aggarwal, CEO, StoreHippo, said, “This digital wave which is likely to dominate in 2021 as well, will also give rise to trends like agile payment gateways, integration of technologies to meet the deliveries, personalization and shift towards D2C amongst others.”

“2020 has been a unique year in itself, and 2021 is yet another step into the unknown. The only thing we can say for certain is that the age of eCommerce and mCommerce is now. As the relevance of statistics changes with the dynamic global situation, this Trends Report showcases how most businesses adapted to the situation and strived to restore the growth as early as possible. Technology played the most important role and has drastically changed the user behavior this year,” he added.