Propelling e-commerce growth in India

Abstract

The internet evolution has changed the dynamics of business and had significantly added value for both the consumers and sellers of product and services through Internet. After a decade of its inception in India, even within the urban population, where Internet penetration is not an issue, it is observed that E-Commerce penetration is not that high compared to other developed countries. In this project, our aim is to understand the current state of the E-Commerce industry, its growth potential, barriers facing its penetration and give recommendations to propel its growth in India. The literature review was done to understand the value of E-Commerce for different stakeholders, how the value can be created, what enables buyer to shop online and the concerns for the consumers while doing E-Commerce as compared to buying from traditional stores. Also, the current status of industry is understood through the industry analysis reports. The in-depth interviews with individuals, focus group discussions are done to understand the consumer perspective of E-Commerce and also interviews with industry players to understand the issues faced by them. Based on the secondary data and the primary research data, the primary triggers and barriers for E-Commerce were identified and six hypotheses were formed. A survey was done among the users and non-users of the E-Commerce and the formulated hypotheses were validated. Based on our analysis of the survey results, literature review and understanding from the discussions with various stakeholders, recommendations were given to the industry players to propel the growth of E-Commerce industry in India.