Indiatimes takes the cake and eats it too, followed, of course, by the old warhorse rediff, and, finally siffy. But when it comes to tipping the hat for e-commerce in India, the Indian Railways deserves it the most.
The Business Standard supplement, the strategist reports on the status of e-commerce. The article is by Prasad Sangameshwaran and Rituparna Chatterjee on an ACNielsen survey of the e-commerce scene.
It is satisfying to note that “books followed airline reservations closely as the most popular online purchase, with 35 per cent of online Indians buying them over the internet,” according to Muthukumaran of ACNielsen ORG-MARG. He adds that “nearly 24 per cent Indian have purchased apparel, music and electronic entertainment [movies, DVDs and games]”. So the e-commerce is coming of age in India.
Indiatimes — not surprisingly — is the most aggressive in the segment.
Some of the findings:
- Average number of online purchases by online Indians is 5.2 in the past month
- Only 35 per cent about books online
- More 36 per cent bought air tickets
- 22 per cent bought videos
- 21 per cent bought clothes
- 68 per cent made purchases by credit cards
- Cash on delivery at 29 per cent was the next popular mode of payment
- 19 per cent use the Bank transfer method
- Of the Rs.1,180 crores Indian online shopping spending the railway ticket booking accounted for 47 per cent
- Online spenders are in the age group of 26 to 35
Media companies will base their strategies on these trends. The foot soldiers will have to do their bidding.
