Future of e-retail in India

E-commerce has shown to be especially useful during the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic as a means of compensating for the losses that were incurred as a result of widespread disruption (for customers and small enterprises) and the loss of employment. According to the report titled ‘How India Shops Online 2021’ that was compiled by Bain & Company in conjunction with Flipkart, it is anticipated that the e-retail market will expand to between 120 and 140 billion dollars by the end of the fiscal year in 2026, expanding at a rate of approximately 25 to 30 percent per year over the course of the next five years.

Smaller towns, which account for four out of every five new consumers, will be the driving force behind the rise. Over the course of the last year, women and people of a certain age have made significant strides into the forefront of the online consumer base. It is anticipated that this development will continue unabated.

According to the findings of the research, “Small-town India will drive this increase, accounting for four out of every five new consumers.” “During the H1N1 pandemic, reverse migration from major cities to smaller villages further boosted population growth. In addition to customers from rural areas, the proportion of women and senior citizens among online consumers is growing.

The Reality of Online Shopping will be Enhanced by Augmented Reality:

When it comes to online buying, augmented reality (AR) is going to become a huge game-changer since it will drastically reduce the amount of uncertainty that now exists. Customers will have an easier time visualising and deciding which goods they wish to purchase as a result of this. They will have the ability to determine, prior to clicking the “Buy Now” button, if the piece of furniture that they are considering purchasing would look well in their house or not. Because of this, comparison will be taken to a whole new level for the consumers, and as a result, they will be better able to overcome the obstacle of not being able to view the goods in person.

There will be a Significant Number of People Using Voice Search: 

Voice assistants such as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa are becoming more prevalent in people’s daily lives. These assistants are used for a variety of tasks, including checking the weather, setting an alarm, and making online purchases. Therefore, one thing that we’ll all see in the future is that people will order groceries with a simple voice command because it will save a lot of time on browsing, particularly if it’s a repeated order because one will not have to enter the brand, the address, the payment and shipping information over and over again. This is one thing that we can all look forward to seeing in the future. Therefore, there is a great deal of unrealized opportunity for companies who are interested in getting a foothold in the industry in its infancy.

 Chatbots will Improve the Shopping Experience:

In the not-too-distant future, chatbots will fulfil the functions of brick-and-mortar stores, including those of a greeting and a salesman. They will not only be able to communicate with hundreds of customers, which is a huge help to the company, but they will also give each of those customers the impression that they are receiving personal attention and make thoughtful recommendations to each of them based on the responses they provide. One research found that individuals actually prefer to interact with digital tools that can serve themselves, such as bots and other digital self-serving technologies, since they respond more quickly. They will become one of the most essential marketing tools and bring about a significant shift in the way that consumers purchase online.

Subscription Feature to Help Customers Coming Back:

Subscription plans provide a variety of advantages for retailers because they make it simpler to estimate fulfilling demands and they enable the customer to sustain and retain consumers for a larger long-term value. These are just two of the many benefits that subscription plans offer. As a result, in the years to come, an increasing number of businesses will provide customers with the opportunity to pay for their acquisitions on a monthly basis or via a subscription service.

Sustainability will Become one of the Main Focus in the Coming Years:

There are a lot of benefits that come along with offering customers the option to subscribe to a retailer’s products. One of these benefits is that it is much simpler for merchants to anticipate the amount of inventory they will need to fulfil orders. One idea that is gaining a lot of momentum, and which we can only hope will not be a passing fad, is that more and more people are becoming conscious of the influence that their shopping choices have on the finite resources of the globe. This is a subject that is receiving a lot of attention. Consequently, it is increasingly necessary for companies to devise methods through which their marketing and fulfilment strategies may be incorporated into their products. There is no question that companies that take steps to improve their business practises, such as switching to paperless operations, switching to biodegradable packaging, using recyclable supplies, and working for the benefit of the environment, will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the purchasing decisions of their target customers. consumers should be kept, since doing so will result in increased value over the long run. As a result, in the years to come, an increasing number of businesses will provide customers with the opportunity to pay for their acquisitions on a monthly basis or via a subscription service.

Because there are a lot of first-time buyers who are not sure what to expect from the e-commerce websites, they fall prey to hard sell and when they finally receive the product, they regret their decision and end up returning the good. As a result, some customers return a significant portion of the products that they buy online. This, in turn, drives up the cost since e-commerce enterprises face extraordinarily high costs associated with return shipping.

Another difficulty that businesses encounter is that the client’s postal address is often incorrect. Because of this, it is difficult for the business to deliver the goods to the consumer, which in turn affects the delivery capacity of the delivery partner.

Last but not least, one of the most significant challenges that the sector must overcome is the problem of sustaining a reliable supply chain.

An open market:

The Open Network Data Catalog (ONDC) is neither a programme, an intermediate, or a particular piece of software. Instead, ONDC is a collection of standards that has been developed to encourage open exchange and linkages between consumers, various technological platforms, and merchants.

The foundation of ONDC is a collection of open standards that provide an open network, very much like India’s Universal Payments Interface. According to Sujith Nair, CEO and cofounder of the Beckn Foundation, the open standards that underpin ONDC are, in fact, an adapted version of the Beckn Protocol. The Beckn Protocol is a global open source standard that was developed in India. It has applications beyond retail commerce in fields such as mobility and health.

India provides a perfect environment for doing research and experiments on the idea. According to Nilekani, the country has one of the greatest participation rates in digital finance anywhere in the world, clocking in at over 80%. The strategy of digitalization being pursued by the Indian government is one of aggressiveness. Inside the next two years, ONDC’s goal is to have 25% of all commerce conducted within India take place online. That is three times higher than the current rate of internet penetration in the internal commerce sector, which is 8%. It’s possible that ONDC will make it easier for kiranas to enter the market, but eventually, all participants will profit.

Reducing barriers to entry:

There are difficult situations and potential dangers for ONDC. Even if it is successful, the result may not be what was intended for it. A large and well-funded adoption drive is going to be required in order to get the tens of millions of kiranas that already exist onto the platform. Amazon and Flipkart will continue to profit from economies of scale, which allow them to negotiate cheaper pricing than their competitors. Any action taken to limit trade that results in higher pricing might generate consumer anger, and it’s possible that the major platforms will wind up being the ones who profit the most from ONDC.

Google Pay and PhonePe, which is owned and operated by Walmart, have amassed the lion’s share of transaction volume in India’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI), which was developed with the intention of offering an open standard for financial transactions. The government is investigating several techniques that might lead to an increase in competition; nevertheless, accomplishing this goal without explicitly controlling user behaviours would be difficult.

On the other hand, the combination of ONDC and UPI may make entrance requirements less stringent. By making India’s commercial foundation available to the public, the two entities might pave the way for increased levels of competition by making it simpler for new entrants to compete with established businesses.

The Open Network Data Catalog (ONDC) gives merchants and governments all across the globe a sneak peek of what open retail may really look like in operation. The increased use of e-commerce and the expansion of the global economic pie would, in the long run, be beneficial for all parties involved, including consumers, business owners, and even the largest platforms.