Online retail in India more than 18-month party

For the fiscal ended 2014, India’s first organised retailer, Future Retail, had a market cap of Rs 2,100 crore, while e-tailer Flipkart was valued at around R12,000 crore. After a series of funding, the most recent one being a whopping $1 billion, Flipkart is today valued at around R43,000 crore ($7 billion), while Future Retail stands at R2,886 crore. If this does not tell the story of the success of online retail in India, what does? Stock Market Tips

More recently, when Japan’s SoftBank invested $627 million in Snapdeal, it was with the hope that India has the potential of producing another Alibaba.

Understandably, brick and mortar stores are feeling left out, and many are being vocal about it. In fact, the loudest among the brigade is none other than Kishore Biyani, the man behind Future Group. He raised a furore over the Big Billion Day sale, accusing Flipkart of predatory pricing Commodity Trading Tips

However, the truth is that online retail is here to stay, and grow rapidly to being a $32 billion industry by 2020, up from $2.3 billion in 2014, as per Technopak.

And with a huge population having access to the Internet, India’s e-commerce story can only get bigger.

Fuelled by deeper discounts than offline stores, who can blame the customer if they choose to buy at the click of a mouse instead of going to a mall.

A random survey by FE of product prices across categories, during a time when no sales are on, reveals that online sites still offer discounts of up to 50% Free Share Tips

A Canon EOS 60D DSLR camera with a 18-135mm lens is available at Snapdeal for R59,124, while it costs R62,000 at a Canon Image Square showroom.

While a Nikon D3200 DSLR camera with a 18-55mm lens is for R24,850 on Flipkart, it sells for around R26,600 at offline stores. A Canon Power Shoot IXUS 145 can be acquired for R4,675 on Flipkart, while it costs R5,815 at a Canon Image Square showroom. Where a Sony Cyber-shoot DSC-W830 on Flipkart is for R7,590, it costs R8,500 at a Sony Exclusive showroom.                                                     Nifty Trading Tips

Top brands in apparel, sunglasses, shoes and accessories are almost always available at a discount of at least 30% online, while discounts for these products offline exist only during sales.

An external hard drive, such as the Dell Backup Plus 1 TB external hard disk on Flipkart costs R4,943, while at a electronics shop the price is R8,000. Similarly a Seagate Expansion 2 TB external hard disk costs R6,950 on Flipkart, but is priced around R10,000 offline.

“Prices for products on Amazon are determined by the sellers. We work hard and continually innovate to offer services such as FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) and Easyship to sellers on our platform, which enables them to significantly lower their cost of selling and reducing defects as they sell to a nationwide customer base Intraday Trading Tips

 Sellers pass on these savings as lower prices on the platform. On occasions, to promote our platform, we run marketing promotions,” says an Amazon India spokesperson.