India’s booming e-commerce market size is expected to grow almost five fold to $40-50 billion by 2020 from about $8-12 billion presently, according to a new report. The projection is modest compared to an Assocham report that had said India’s e-commerce market is already worth $23 billion. The joint report by Boston Consulting Group and Retailers Association of India says that while travel is expected to account for 60 per cent of e-commerce sales by 2020, electronics would account for about 30 per cent. The growth of digital retail is dependent on the shift in the profile of Internet users. The number of Internet users is projected to rise to 650 million by 2020 from 260 million. “Urban users would nearly double from about 80 million to about 120 million,” the report said. The share of women Internet users is also expected to grow from 29 per cent to 40 per cent by 2020. According to the report, more than 400 million customers could potentially be digitally influenced by 2020, accounting for about 25 per cent of the retail spend. Digitally influenced spenders research products and pricing online while purchasing either offline or online, the BCG-RAI report said.
