Ever since the beginning of the internet era, the entrepreneurs the world over jumped into it and have started some of the world's largest corporations and businesses.
Today the domination of the internet could be seen in everybody's life. Individuals, companies, governments, and industries have all become very much dependant on the internet. Loosing internet connectivity for a few seconds means a loss of billions of dollars business for many companies. Take away internet connectivity for a day the world over and that will create mayhem and irreversible damage to many businesses and corporations.
With that said, we will move our focus to the e-commerce business in India.
E-commerce in India is still at a nascent stage and still there is scope for many to enter.
Even though India had eBay and Amazon for nearly a decade, the e-commerce sector started to grow only after some Indian companies like Flipkart and Snapdeal entered and started doing business.
Flipkart and Snapdeal were supposed to grow rapidly as judged by many, but Amazon took the lead surprisingly and it is now the leading e-commerce player in India along with Flipkart. Snapdeal fell along the way and to many business observers, it was a surprise.
Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal all made huge losses in the financial year ending 2016. Each company made a loss of around Rupees 3000 Crs (three thousand crores) each. This did not perturb the American retail giant Walmart. They bought more than seventy percent (70 %) of the stake in Flipkart for nearly sixteen billion dollars (16 Billion USD). This shows the potential of e-commerce in India.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had announced in 2016 that the company will invest 5 billion US dollars in Amazon India in the coming years.
Amazon and Flipkart have their own logistics arm. Both the companies deliver their products thru their own logistics facilities and also thru other logistics companies. Snapdeal does not seem to have a logistics arm of their own. Nowadays it seems Snapdeal is happy with what they are doing and there is not much noise of them.
Amazon as a marketplace is selling millions of products to the Indian consumer who is very price-conscious. Flipkart too has millions of products under its portfolio. They sell everything from mops to mangoes. Both the companies boast of lakhs of sellers selling under their platform.
There are some specialists in the e-commerce sector catering to a niche category of products, namely Zivame, Nykaa, Shipmychip, Lenskart, BigBasket to name a few.
Zivame is selling ladies innerwear, which is a big market and is doing good business. The company was founded by a woman entrepreneur who has taken the company to great heights. They are selling panties, brasiers, nightwear, lingerie, sportswear, etc.
Nykaa is selling makeup kits and all makeup related items and has become a favorite among young girls and women.
Shipmychip is a marketplace for Laptops, Desktops, Graphics card, gaming consoles, motherboard, processors and all IT components and peripherals.
Lenskart is focussing on eyewear, powered glasses, sunglasses, etc.
Bigbasket is supplying vegetables, fruits, and provisions to households.
So far we have been talking about B2C (Business to Consumer) e-commerce. There are also B2B (Business to Business) e-commerce marketplaces selling industrial supplies, instruments and the like.
To sum it up, there is still a big opportunity in the e-commerce space in India and we can see many more players coming into this. So if you have planned to start your e-commerce website, go ahead and wish you all the best.