The Covid-19 epidemic has affected consumers’ choices as well as their shopping habits.
Between 2020 and 2022, India’s e-commerce sector saw an extraordinary rise in the number of first-time online customers, and this trend is anticipated to persist in the years to come. Between 2020 and 2022, India saw an increase of 101 million new online shoppers as a result of the rapid adoption of e-commerce.
As a result, by the end of 2022, there were approximately 230 million online shoppers in India, making up almost 36 per cent of all Internet users.
According to a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Matrix Partners India report, there are some interesting facts about the rising popularity of e-commerce among Indians, how the Covid-19 pandemic period affected consumers’ shopping habits before and after it, and the top industries that will dominate online retail by 2025.
E-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart are doing everything in their power to attract more customers by regularly offering credit/debit card incentives and steep product discounts. By the end of 2025, this would increase the number of online shoppers in India to close to 350–400 million, adding 50 million new customers.
Bain & Company’s projection from the middle of 2020 is slightly higher than the total number of Indians predicted to make online purchases by 2025.
The report also emphasises how social media and other video apps have grown in importance in driving the expansion of online shopping in India.
It is important to note that almost 50 per cent of all online consumers, or 320 million people, are considered to be members of the “Digitally influenced” demographic, which includes people who primarily utilise social media and video apps for both amusement and product research.
Indians spend far more money on average while purchasing online than they did in the past. Prior to the epidemic, between 2016 and 2020, India’s internet retail consumption increased yearly by less than US $ 10 billion. Nonetheless, during the Covid-19 pandemic and afterward, there will be a surge in annual online spending.
Internet spending in India increased by US $ 21 billion from 2020 to close to US $ 32–US $ 40 billion in 2021. In 2022, this amount is projected to rise to US $ 50 to US $ 55 billion, an increase of US $ 16 billion from the current year.
By 2025, it is anticipated that the fashion and apparel category would account for between 25 per cent and US $ 160 billion in online retail sales. However, the percentage of spending in 2025 is a little lower than it was in 2015, when fashion and clothing accounted for 27 per cent of the US $ 10–13 billion in total online retail spending.
One-fifth to one-half of India’s US $ 50 billion to US $ 55 billion in online retail sales in 2021 came from the fashion and apparel sector. This was primarily due to the fact that the country was placed under lockdown in 2021 when the spread of Covid-19 reached its apex. Hence, there was no incentive to buy clothing or other items of fashion.
source/content: apparelresources.com (headline edited)