Retail sector sees a 19% growth which is higher than IT and BPM

Giving wings to the Digital India initiative which has steadily gained popularity, the ecommerce sector in the country has registered some rather impressive growth. According to the Economic Survey by the Central government, discounts, festival offers, speedy delivery and better telecom bandwidth seem to have helped the sector grow at 19.1% .

The ecommerce market, pegged at $33 billion this fiscal year, has clearly shown 19% growth over 2016-17. While the Central government is providing a push to this sector with Startup India initiatives, it is believed that this sector has a great potential for job creation.  

Interestingly, the survey has highlighted that the growth in ecommerce sector is more than twice in comparison to the IT and business process management (IT-BPM)) industry which has grown to $140 billion by clocking 8% growth during the same period.

The survey, which stressed that the Centre had taken many initiatives to promote this sector point out that long-term initiatives like Digital India, Make in India, Smart Cities, eGovernance, push for digital talent through Skill India, drive towards a cashless economy and efforts to kindle innovation through Startup India have opened new opportunities for many .

Taking a step forward to promote tribal communities and their products to consumers, the Central government has also signed up with ecommerce firms such as Amazon and Snapdeal to make their products available on these platforms.

Big funds for ecommerce firms
Riding on the ecommerce wave in India, earlier last year, homegrown unicorn Flipkart had announced Tencent, along with Microsoft and eBay, had pumped $1.4 billion into the Indian online retailer.  This was also the largest amount ever raised by an Indian ecommerce firm in a single round.  While Flipkart has tried hard to compete with global ecommerce giant Amazon, funding also marked the arrival of Tencent in India’s frenzied ecommerce battle.

Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos-led Amazon, in its bid to strengthen its operations in the booming Indian ecommerce market, has pumped Rs 1,680 crore. Amazon stated last year, "We remain committed to our India business with a long- term perspective to make e-commerce a habit for Indian customers and invest in the necessary technology and infrastructure to grow the entire ecosystem".