Online shopping trends in India

Online Shopping Trends In India

By Esha B

Online shopping in India has been on a consistent rise since the last few years. With the advancement in IT technology, and increase in the total percentage of computer literate people in India, online shopping websites are well on their way towards a successful future. Not only in terms of customers, but in terms of sellers also, the opening up of various online shopping portals on the internet, has proved to be a boon, as now thay have access to a wider audience rather than a limited petty market.Sites like ebay.com have provided a platform for these sellers to showcase and sell their products.

A few years back, when online shopping was at its nascent stage, there were very limited sales as well as purchases on the online shopping arena. This was due to many reasons such as lack of internet friendly population, low penetration of computers and internet connections in India, low percentage of credit and debit cardholders, as well as non willingness of people to use their credit card on the internet due to the fear of being scammed.

But with the passage of time, this scenario has improved  tremendously as people have started gaining confidence about purchasing products online. The advantages of shopping online, far outweigh the benefits of purchasing products from an offline market. Shoppers now have the option of browsing through a wide variety of products, rather than choosing a limited variety from a traditional market. Be it a bouquet of flowers or an expensive car, everything is available at the click of a mouse. Customers also get to save lots of time as they can shop anytime in a day, sitting in the comforts of their homes as the shopping websites are open all year round, 24hrs a day.

With the promise of a secure transactions by the online portals, buyers are no longer insecure about buying products online.  Online shopping portals like ebay.co.in, sirIndia shopping and Indiaplaza.in have been able to increase the no. of buyers by offering attractive discounts, free gifts and stock clearance sales.

Major international as well as national brands such as LG, Pantaloons, Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, big bazaar have created easy to use websites for customers to shop online. This has eliminated the need of middlemen, as a result of which, one can buy products at a price much cheaper than what the price will be at a local shop. The internet has also proven to be a boon for small scale retailers, many of whom cannot afford to buy websites of their own. They can now display and advertise their range of products on portals like ebay.com, thereby increasing their customer base.

These kind of trends demonstrate that online shopping has really become popular with the Indian population over the years and with business of around 5000 crore generated by sites like ebay.co.in each year,we can say that in the coming future we may see traditional markets being replaced by online markets.