Market Intelligence To Play A Key Role To The E-commerce Boom In India

E-commerce segment of India is riding on high tides of growth since last couple of years and the trend is expected is retain its pace in the current year and in future. In 2015, the entire E-commerce segment had a valuation of 16 billion USD and has been projected to increase up to 101.9 billion USD by the end of 2020. There have been many developments in this segment which are actively contributing towards its growth. The small scale merchants and retailers have been dynamically participating in the business due to the extended reach towards customers. The increase in the usage of Smartphone and internet has increased the connectivity and accessibility of the customers. A shopper can browse through the products, select, ask for assistance and make a purchase at any time. The simplicity and presence of multiple payment modes facilitate the process even further. It is also important to mention that these factors have also lead to the increase in the number of online shoppers. There has been an enormous growth of 95 percent in the number of online shoppers within the span of 2013 to 2015. This trend is expected to continue and the figures are expected touch 220 million by 2020. The investments have also flown in to this segment due to these growth factors. All these growth factors can be largely attained through market intelligence which is predicted to play a key role towards the E-commerce development perspective.

Market Intelligence refers to the information related to the growth trends, penetration, customer base and behavior of a particular geography which can be strategically utilized for the decision making processes and product and service implementation. It is expected to have many positive impacts on e-commerce.

• It will help the players to gain industry specific insights that will in turn help the retailers to take up better strategic decisions regarding customer behavior and service oriented segment beneficial for the business.
• It will help in finding out new revenue opportunities for the players keeping them ahead with a competitive edge.
• It is expected to aid the companies to identify the target customer base and launch services and products that are increasingly popular in that segment.
• The right decision towards appropriate services will trigger increased sales and a higher customer base.

Overall, market intelligence is predicted to be utilized by most e-commerce players in India in the coming years for business development and service line augmentation.