INDIA – Indian consumers just like their counterparts across the globe embraced online shopping during the pandemic when social distancing made it undesirable to shop in brick and motor stores.
With the pandemic dragging on for more than a year now, consumers in the Asian country have made online a habit that is expected to stay on even after the pandemic.
The shift to online shopping has made fintech form FIS to be confident that e-commerce is the next frontier for growth in India’s retail sector.
In its recently released report, FIS said that India’s e-commerce market is poised to grow by 84 percent to US$111 billion by 2024.
According to FIS, this growth will be mainly driven by mobile shopping, which is projected to grow 21 percent annually over the next four years.
The report also forecasted that the Point of Sale (POS) market in India would increase by 41 per cent between now and 2024 to US$1.035 billion.
The most popular in-store payment method is cash at 34 percent, followed by digital wallets (22 percent) and debit card payments (20 per cent), it added.
The report further projected that digital wallets will overtake cash as the most popular in-store payment method by 2024, accounting for 33 per cent of payments.
Already, digital wallets (40 percent) followed by credit card and debit card (15 percent each) were the most popular payment methods online in 2020.
Also, purchases made with digital wallets are expected to increase their market share of online payments by 2024 to 47 percent.
Besides, ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ emerged as the fastest growing online payment method in India and is projected to increase its share of the market from just 3% in 2020 to 9 percent by 2024 based on the analysis in the report.
“The Indian e-commerce industry has witnessed a huge upsurge due to Covid-19 and there is substantial room for future growth,” Phil Pomford, Worldpay managing director (Asia Pacific) from FIS said.
E-commerce capability is no longer limited to just traditional websites, physical retail has blended with the digital world, added Phil.
“The shop floor is now in the palm of our hands, and consumers expect the same hassle-free and convenient shopping experience, whether they are purchasing in-app, through their social feeds, or in the real world,” he said.
Phil continued by saying; “Merchants will be well-positioned to be successful if they put customer experience at the heart of the checkout process.”
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