Changing Colors of Online Shopping in India

HISTORY OF ONLINE SHOPPING IN INDIA

Last couple of years saw the Indian e-commerce industry make it to the news for all the funds it raised. It is not long ago that e-commerce was considered pathetic and so was the experience of online customers in India. Today Online Shopping has become very very common among us. We don't think twice before making online transactions. But few years back the word Online shopping itself seemed to ring bells of suspicion and a series of unanswered questions in our mind.

We used to think and rethink 100 times before ordering anything online. Well it didn't end there, when we were done with placing order, the negativity of online shopping just didn't seem to creep out of our mind. Thoughts like, Are they gonna deliver the exact thing I saw on my screen? Will I receive my order in one piece? Will I receive my order on time and so on used to pop up in our mind every now and then . This actually had to be the scenario as online shopping experience at that stage was bad.

Their were complications people had to face in online shopping. It was mainly due to two reasons, one being lack of awareness and knowledge about e-commerce among people and the other being the shortcomings in e-commerce itself.

Several measures were taken to make people feel secure and comfortable about online shopping. Slowly people started getting aware of e-commerce, what it is all about, how it works. But still people were not very comfortable about online shopping altogether. Additional features were continuously introduced to win the confidence of buyers. One feature that stands tall among all is cash on delivery. The introduction of cash on delivery drove people crazy about online shopping. Since then, e-commerce in India has marched ahead and has become one of the fastest growing trend among Indians.

GROWTH OF E-COMMERCE IN INDIA

The year 2011-12 brought a revolution in online shopping in India. People didn't only accept online shopping but started to shop a lot over the internet. Not only in the metropolitans, online shopping started to make good business from other cities as well. 

By the end of 2012 the complete picture of e-commerce in India had changed. E-Commerce started to dominate the market unlike the prior expectations. Seeing the unexpected growth of online market, many online stores were introduced in a very short notice. This gave people an opportunity to select from a wide range of online stores available.

With the growing competition came the need of extensive marketing. Huge amounts were spent for marketing online and offline as well which yielded fruitful results and played a key role in the enhancement of e-commerce in India. People came to know about the online stores and what they have to offer.

People saw the advantages of online shopping, how it saves energy, time and money. I will save this topic for my next blog so won't go in much details on the advantages of online shopping. In brief, the advantages and convenience of online shopping drove people towards e-commerce. 

Today e-commerce has flourished into a very big market. We can go for online shopping for every kind of product, be it a handy gift like a coffee mug or a huge refrigerator, footwear, clothing, perfumes, beauty products, Electronic stuffs like television, washing machine or Microwaves, Mobile and mobile accessories, laptops and PC's, camera, jewellery, kitchenware and Housewares, furnitures, books and e-books, Sports stuffs and so much more.

This is something I have discussed about online stores. If we talk about the online transactions, then banking and booking tickets are always worth mentioning. I remember when we had to stand in queue for hours for banking or to book a rail ticket.

I will share a personal experience when I had to book a rail ticket from Hyderabad urgently, the Tatkaal ticket I mean. I had to stay on the station for one whole night and finally got my ticket booked at 10:12 in the morning. A horrible experience I must say, with lots and lots of mosquito bites everywhere. The moment when you are just about to sleep and the mosquito comes with its own rhythmic songs, ahh really feels frustrating.

In the same way we had to stand in queue for several minutes or a couple of hours for the banking stuffs. Today with the advancement and improvement in technology and awareness among people, booking tickets and stuffs is just a few clicks away.

So online shopping and online transactions are no more a night mare in India. It keeps people updated with the upcoming trends and whatever stuffs are in demand as of now. people keep track of new technologies and new launches through the online market. People check for reviews on the product and then decide whether it is worth taking or not. Even if we have to compare prices, we prefer online comparison of products. In short, people today rely on the online stores in one way or the other and this trend is expected to increase more and more day by day.

This is were we end today, will be back soon with the new topic "Benefits of Online Shopping" as promised. Till then take good care of yourselves. See Ya!!