StartupsPolicy
Friend or foe
China is good for Indian businesses
Banning Chinese apps may harm the future of Indian retail. Chinese retail models suit India more than models of Amazon and Flipkart. 90% of China’s share of e-commerce takes place on Mobile.
China’s approach is consumer centric, where as Western retail models are centralised and tech driven. Therefore, Indian retail will benefit from new retail concepts such as video commerce. Similar to China India’s share of mobile in e-commerce is high. It allows customers from smaller cities and towns to access big brands like their counterparts in metros and big cities.
As per Economist: Fitch, a ratings agency, thinks the market for live-stream retail neared 1trn yuan ($153bn) in 2020, double the prior year’s amount (see chart 3). Kuaishou, Douyin’s short-video rival, expects the gross value of goods sold on live-streams to rise from 4.2% of online sales in 2019 to almost a quarter by 2025.
The next retail trends are group buying. A group of buyers on social media bargain directly with the merchants. Apps such as Mesho allow women to become entrepreneurs. Future of Indian retail should be similar to Chinese retail, and not western.
Dig deeper: A brief history of consumer culture Link
