The calendar year 2011 is ending in few days and the report cards for various sectors of internet space are being released. In India we should expect report cards twice a year – calendar year (ending December) and financial year (ending March)!
In today’s Economic Times the unique visitors of major categories of ecommerce portals in India have been published, the source being Comscore.
Nov 2010 Nov 2011
Total Audience in India 41,169 46,390
Retail 23,021 27,171
Coupons 1,048 7,647
Consumer Electronics 6,334 7,122
Comparison Shopping 4,611 5,775
Computer Hardware 5,079 5,708
Apparel 1,735 4,609
Movies 2,587 3,076
Books 2,559 2,494
Flowers/Gifts/Greetings 2,132 2,323
Jewelry/Luxury Goods 1,575 2,134
Home 1,605 1,966
Source: comscore
The categories that catch your attention could be – coupons (deal sites – translates to snapdeal) and apparel showing a huge jump and shockingly the books category (which translates to just flipkart for most) has shrunk.
Irrespective of whether you believe numbers, numbers, statistics I would agree the number of people shopping online has increased.
There has been a lot of bashing about the valuations of ecommerce companies in India. In today’s Mint there is an article about investors turning skeptical on the ecommerce space (are they skeptical of the space or valuations?). Highlights from various ecommerce in India related articles,
- Ecom sites that shutdown permanently or temporarily in 2011: Taggle.com, nammagroceries.com, harisabzi.com, subzimandi.in
- In 2010, there were 18 investments in ecom sites worth $112 million. In 2011 $500m was invested in 67 sites.
- VCs feel there are more players than what the market can support. But few feel ecom will not experience a bubble.
- According to IAMAI 17 million shop online (I have read 10 million in other reports)
- Market share of online shopping: 0.2% of offline in 2011, 1.4% in 2015.
- Ecom startups offer 5-20% discount to market prices. Works well for a price sensitive society!
- Flipkart revenues: 2010-11 Rs 50 crore ($10 m), 2011-12 Rs 600 crore ($120 m)
- Snapdeal revenues: 2010-11 minimal, 2011-12 Rs 150 crore ($30m)
- 38% of mobile internet users say they have used their phones to shop online. (Hmmm..really?)
Also read,
- Is online retail the next bubble waiting to pop? – Jan 2012
- E-commerce poised for a leap in 2012
- Status Of E-commerce In The Current Market And Its Potential – Nov 2011
- E-com Hype Is Driven By Cash-rich VC Funds, Not Wise Investors – Nov 2011
- E-commerce Valuations In India: The Burn Will Hit You, Not The Fraud
- E-Commerce is booming in India: Google – Aug 2011
Nice to read such an article, i myself own an online t-shirt company, and am sure 2012 is gonna be a great year for all of us.:)
2011 was just the start of what was supposed to come. The market has exploded and there are hundreds of e-commerce companies out there trying to woo the Indian consumers. With the top players getting attention the smaller ones are finding it difficult to sustain and get fresh round of funding. Many have to finally close down because of lack of funding. See: http://www.klypy.com/in/ecommerce-shut-downs-acquisitions-india/. But experts still believe that everything is not all negative. We are just beginning and great things are sure to come in the future.