E-commerce Only 7% of Market Share Vs 75% of Traditional Retail

Offline retailers in the IT sector have been leading agitation against the E-commerce in the misconception that E-commerce is taking away their business. However, Statista report falsifies these fears as they have revealed striking figures.

E-commerce Figures Vs Traditional Retail

According to its 19th of July 2021 report, Statista has revealed that E-commerce in India has increased from 2019 to 2021 only from 3% to 7%. This is only a 4% increase in the market share despite all the internet expansion and millions of internet users!

In contrast, traditional retail has fallen from 88% in 2019 to 75% in 2021. Organised sector excluding E-commerce accounts for a 9% increase - from 9% in 2019 to 18% in 2021.

Statista report also says that within this 7% share of E-commerce, electronics account for 40%.

Hence, IT products selling online account for only 2.8% market share!

Why the misconception?

This misconception that E-commerce has claimed all the business of traditional IT retail business has arisen because there's an unduly large media focus on the metro cities and on a small sections of buyers among whom online purchase is more popular. The reality remains that large sections of buyers, even in metro cities, still prefer the human angle and still like to contact the retailer personally before buying their products. In smaller cities, E-commerce is minimal and offline retail is the order of the day.

Roadmap for the IT MSMEs

Having said the above, the IT MSMEs should still create a hybrid presence both offline and online. They should promote their online profiles to capture customers whom they can handle offline once they get in touch.

Second, IT MSMEs don't have to be apprehensive about E-commerce taking away their business. Their offline business is not going away anytime soon.

Hence, instead of wasting time, energy and effort on unnecessary lobbying against a sector that has only 2.8% market share, they should focus on evolving business strategies to expand their business.

In the end, it would be worthwhile for them to build their online profiles and capture customers online rather than block the online technology from their business strategy. But, they should  focus more on their business rather than on lobbying against a market share of only 2.8%.