A few years back , articles would read like ” Online shopping is the next big thing! ” and now it is like a revolution! It amazes me how businesses have taken a shift from real time market to digital market. Anything and everything can be transacted over the internet today. By overcoming the political and physical barriers, giving every seller a transparent playing ground for their market, online shopping or e-tailing has evolved as a grand success globally and in India as well.
You wish to buy a latest design dress and you also expect some offers with it, all you need to do is check out different clothing sites, choose what suits you the best and decide among the best offers, make online payment or pay cash on delivery with an option of cash back if you don’t like the product. Could it be any more convenient or brilliant?? You have choices, offers, benefits, time to make your best deal and what not!!
As we know today markets are consumer oriented and sellers are not the bosses anymore, online shopping is no exception. The journey started with Amazon.com in 1995, they started selling each and everything online. This was followed by eBay and then the list of online shopping sites kept growing and is still growing. Amazon.com has an estimated turnover on a daily basis over US $ 2.5 Trillion with growth rate of 14% annually and eBay having sales of US $ 1.89 Billion, therefore the numbers say it all. There were initial fears about the acceptance of this new idea but over the years consumers have increased and sales increase every year substantially.
Online shopping is such big hit that even big names of fashion industry couldn’t keep away. Big names like Jimmy Choo, Hugo Boss, Marc Jacobs etc have their stores online, providing their loyal customers an opportunity to buy high-end products online avoiding a visit to their store.
Online shopping has boosted the sales of companies who were earlier selling their products in only stores and also established a new business line that has proved highly profitable and generates incredible employment opportunities.
In the area concerning fashion or apparels, the number of sites keeps growing. Sites selling each and everything starting from clothes to bags to eye glasses and there are sites focusing on one or two particular areas like only clothing or only footwear or eye glasses.
Sites like HomeShop18, Snap Deal, Flipkart , Amazon, Jabong, Myntra etc sell diverse variety of products and have great offers and benefits attached.
Sites likes lenskart.com only sell frames, indiabookstore.net sells books, yobags.com only deals in bags etc.
Many famous international brands also have their shopping sites like H & M , Zara, Victoria’s secret etc.
In India the popularity of online shopping can be seen growing rapidly. During festive seasons, more traffic can be seen on online retail websites and shopping on ground has literally taken a back seat. Convenience is not the sole reason for that people, we do know how fuel prices are touching skies, we have to wait for off season sales, security issues and the stare of sellers when we take quite long to decide what we really want. Also with the emergence of smart phones , there is more access to internet and as a result online shopping has grown. According to a study, a greater percentage of smart phone-users are aged above 40 years and they access shopping sites atleast once a month.
Online shopping is the best option available in the current scenario and also according to latest estimates, online shopping market is worth 52000 crores and is growing at 100% per day. Our capital Delhi is ranked number one buyer followed by Mumbai and Ahmedabad. India has more than 100 million internet users, so you can guess how many buyers we have.
Utility stores like Vishal retail, Subhiksha and Spinach are also ready to take a step forward towards e-tailing. Well, its quite obvious as it provides a huge business opportunity and lots of money.
Sites like Flipkart, Yebhi, Jabong etc are using aggressive advertising to hook the customers. I won’t be wrong to say that they are throwing their best and hell innovative advertisements to grab attention. Retailers with the view to capture online markets are aware of the fact that a lot of potential is still trapped and with the help of effective advertising and selling methods they can make it real big. According to a research Flipkart is the most popular site in India followed by eBay.
Its been reported that India, China and Russia have spent billions on their software and also retailers have hiked their IT budget. This investment has pumped up the growth in these countries which can be easily noticed. Online shopping has also boosted the credit card business.
Online shopping is abut to explode in the coming years as retailers of all types are gearing up to capture the online markets. But, it is expected that certain legislations will be implemented on online shopping very soon as online selling is becoming aggressive. Retailers like L.L Bean has launched free shipping on all items, Macy’s on purchase of $99 or more and many more such techniques are used to attract buyers. But, there’s also no turning back the tide. Online shopping is a success and is uplifting economy without any doubt. E-commerce has not just made shopping digital but easy, fun and satisfying.
Keep browsing, clicking and buying!!!
