E-commerce in India

The size of the e-commerce market in India was $147.3 billion in 2024, with 18.7% predicted CAGR through to 2028. This growth will be fueled by technology innovations, cheaper data rates, and rising smartphone adoption - as well as increased market penetration due to growth from Tier II and III cities. By 2027, the number of Indian ecommerce consumers is projected to be 400 million, up from 312.5 million in 2022.

India had an Internet user base of about 690.0 million in 2023, about 40% of the population. Despite being the second-largest user base in world, only behind China (1.079 billion, 48% of population), the penetration of e-commerce is low compared to markets like the United States (266 million, 84%), or France (54M, 81%), but it is growing, adding around 6 million new entrants every month.

In India, cash on delivery is the most preferred payment method, accumulating 75% of the e-retail activities. Demand for international consumer products (including long-tail items) is growing faster than in-country supply from authorised distributors and e-commerce offerings. Long tail business strategy allows companies to realize significant profits by selling low volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers, instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items. The term was first coined in 2004 by Chris Anderson.

In 2023, the largest e-commerce companies in India were Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon. In 2018, Amazon beat Flipkart and was recorded the biggest ecommerce in India in terms of revenue. In 2020, Flipkart heavily outsold Amazon by almost two to one by sales during festive retail season.

In 2022, the pilot phase of the Open Network for Digital Commerce was launched.