Online Shopping Trends in India - What's the boom all about?

Online shopping is the process where consumers purchase products or services over the Internet. These stores have pushed behind the rituals of buying products and services at any normal retail store. In these stores the consumers find the product of their choice by browsing through the website of the retailers or they can even search across many vendors by using a shopping search engine.

Online shopping is the process where consumers purchase products or services over the Internet. These stores have pushed behind the rituals of buying products and services at any normal retail store. In these stores the consumers find the product of their choice by browsing through the website of the retailers or they can even search across many vendors by using a shopping search engine.

Net-savvy dwellers of the World Wide Web may still be a minority in India, but when it comes to online shopping, Indians are increasingly proving that they can beat the world when it comes to buying with keyboards and clicks. A recent study has revealed that more and more Indians are using online shopping and it is also proved that the frequency of the country’s online purchases is beating the global average.


India’s first brush with online shopping came with the dot-com boom in 2000. It is a fact that in line with the global trends, Indians have finally started shopping online with zeal, these days. Internet and Mobile Association of India, which is a trade association representing the e-commerce, mobile content and advertising industry has shown that the online shopping market in India has risen from about $11 million in 1999-2000 to about $58 million in 2003-04.

There are many drivers for the online shopping boom in India, such as, access to the information and communication, rising PC penetration and the advancement of cyber cafes. This online trend in India is also getting popular for the reason that the customers can quickly compare the prices of a particular product among different vendors, these online price comparison services and search engines helps the customers from indulging into any frauds laid by the sellers and the introduction of secure sockets layer system has also solved the problem of credit card numbers being intercepted in the transaction between the customer and the merchant. Indians are now looking for variety and ease that is only possible through online shopping.