The era of the new market is emerging!

S Mohini Ratna
Editor
VARINDIA

The future of retailing will see the coming together of offline and online, where offline business will complement the online business.

A question that arises is what comes first - Innovation, Digitization or Disruption? Whatever may be the answer, one has to disrupt its own innovated technology in order to digitally transform. With the e-commerce audience emerging with the increased user base of internet, the benefits of the internet to small business industries is growing which is in turn giving rise to new retail, new finance and new technology. The C2B supply chain and personalized manufacturing is the future. In the ‘Made in Internet’ era, you can design your products in the U.S., manufacture in Germany, assemble in China and sell them worldwide. This helps SMEs to sell globally, buy globally, pay globally and get products shipped globally.

A recent study has revealed that over 120 million Indian consumers are expected to shop online this year, with an annualised growth of 115 percent, aided by fast-increasing data consumption and improvement in logistics, along with a number of offers presented by e-commerce platforms. India is the fastest growing internet nation in the world. A compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13 percent will take the number of online users to 720 million as compared to 500 million in 2017. With a growth of 25 per cent, the Indian e-commerce industry is expected to cross the $125 billion mark by 2020, growing at the rate of 55%, the highest in the world, attracted by huge deals and discounts offered by the major e-commerce companies led by Flipkart, Amazon India, Paytm Mall, Reliance Digital etc. The capacity of burning money and better manage of supply chain does matter for the growth of the e-commerce industry.

Propelled by rising smartphone penetration, the launch of 4G networks and increasing consumer wealth, the Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow. A humongous number of consumer needs and desired experiences is directly impacting the micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME) and the retail sector in India.

Additionally, the government’s initiative towards Digital India, Make in India, and the Innovation Fund is encouraging more online penetration and e-commerce growth in the country. Recently the Reserve Bank of India has allowed inter-operability for prepaid payment instruments, such as digital wallets, creating room for technological innovation in this area. A question arises whether the Competition Commission of India (CCI) will decide on the anti-dumping of foreign capital and desi capital or not. 

The concern is on predatory pricing. The predatory price war - like Jio’s rock-bottom pricing, Flipkart’s buy one get three free and heavy discount on Amazon Prime - is destroying the healthy competitiveness of the market. But surprisingly, the trend of pure e-retail era will soon come to an end. Global giants like Alibaba has realised the fact and implemented the module of offline market as well. It will be the mix of online and offline markets that will equally exist with support logistics as the new retail mantra.

Recently, Big Basket started its offline retail strategy. The company is looking to transform its core online business to offline centres to store daily moving consumer goods, groceries, fruits and vegetables. This investment comes in at a time when Indian and foreign behemoths are heavily investing into this sector. Recently, Flipkart restarted its grocery business, whereas, Amazon is planning to enter the offline stores in India. 
Indeed, time will say what is there in store!