India and E-Commerce

What is E-Commerce?
Electronic commerce , commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. ...

E-Commerce has been big in the US for the last decade with an early growth of ~20% year over year. People have predicted that this trend will prevail for the next five years (trends based on data before the recent financial crisis)

What about India? Is E-Commerce a success in India. The following was the prediction during 03'-04'

"Ecommerce is set for rapid growth in India, according to new research. Boston Consulting Group predicts online transactions in India will hit 1.95 trillion rupees (£28.5 billion) by 2005. The study, presented at a software industry conference in Bangalore, says the biggest strides will be made in business-to-business transactions."

A few of the companies that were really successful and had their mark in on-line commerce around this time. To name a few

Naukri.com – India’s premier recruitment site has captured around 50% of the recruitment market.

ICICIDIRECT.com - Stock trading simplified, Icicidirect.com is today the country’s premier trading portal.

Baaze.com – I can be a buyer and get the best value for my money. I can be a seller and sell my inventory at best prices.

What about today! We have a huge list of BIG online e-commerce companies and a few cool startups. Lets take a look at who they are. First and foremost, we have Times shopping, then rediff and a few others that make the BIGgy list. The capitalized on their huge customer base in news and they account for a major portion of the online sales in India. In the last few years we have had a few cool startups that have come up, which unlike the big ones concentrate only in the Online Retail ! A few top ones to name are...

• Infibeam.com - Infibeam.com is a wonderful and exciting new destination online. They focus on selling a variety of products via the internet, which includes exciting new and used cars and bikes, mobile phones, mobile accessories, books, cameras, watches, health equipments, cakes, chocolates, flowers, combo gifts, and a lot more at guaranteed lowest prices!
• PicSquare.com - rated as "Best Designed Website in online Photo Prints category" by PC world India, Picsquare is a leading online photo service in India!
• FlipKart.com - Flipkart.com is an exciting new way of buying books online in India.

and a few more... Looking at these startups it sure does look like the Indian Market it ready to go online!