E-commerce in India to touch $60 billion by 2023

MUMBAI: India's e-commerce sector is expected to have 7 per cent share of country's retail market amounting to USD 60 billion by 2023, a senior industry official said.

"By 2023, e-commerce in India will have 7 per cent share of retail amounting to USD 60 billion dollars," Technopak Advisors chairman Arvind Singhal said at 'eTailing India Conference and Exhibition 2014' here.

Telecom companies will be the biggest e-commerce players in India over the next couple of years, Singhal said.

Singhal pointed out that there is limited access to financial capital -- the industry needs FDI in e-commerce and free access to capital. Logistics, spoiling consumers with unreasonable promises, and poor Internet connectivity will be some of the challenges for e-commerce in India.

Nitin Bawankule, Industry Director, Google, said, "The signs are all encouraging. Air tickets and train tickets have been the earliest successes of e-commerce in India.

The size of the industry was USD 1.5 billion in 2012 (exclusive of tickets) and grew to USD 2.5 to 2.8 billion in 2013. The number of online shoppers has more than doubled - 20 million shoppers in 2013 from 8 mn in 2012. The average consumer basket has grown by 50-80 per cent online."

It would be easy to conclude that e-commerce in India will be USD 17 to 20 bn in the next five years, he said.

The three-day conference features over 70 industry speakers and covers diverse topics such as omni-channel retailing, packaging for e-commerce, marketing, warehousing, mobile & tablet commerce, payment solutions and retail exports in e-commerce.