For anyone living in India, the past few years have been periods of radical change. Booming e-commerce startup ecosystems, a full blown e-commerce explosion and a growing hyper-local space have already started what could be a permanent change in how Indians buy, order and pay.
The list isn’t based necessarily based on the companies’ GMVs, funding, profitability or the sometimes controversial valuation. Instead, this list focuses on ranking the retailers on the basis of brand reach, growth and potential.
Amazon
Purely on a potential assessment, Amazon ranks higher than anyone in the list for a variety of reasons. Because consider this – even before entering India’s retail space, Amazon’s US website was getting more hits from India than any other local e-commerce website.
In June 2015, at just over 2 years old, Amazon’s India website managed to emerge as the top visited e-commerce site in the country by web traffic. The global giant hasn’t even tried to be secretive about its massive expansion plans in India. Despite being limited to marketplace model due to FDI restrictions, there is every chance for Amazon to come out on top this year stumping older Snapdeal and Flipkart, unless we get to see some welcome innovation from them.
Jabong
For anyone looking for genuine branded apparel, footwear and accessories, Jabong offers the best platform online. The company has been able to keep their act simple with a wide yet uncluttered catalog of top brands and low prices coupled with quick service. Since the portal isn’t a marketplace, Jabong has been successful in maintaining very high quality standards.
Make no mistake, the online retailer has been able to register the fastest growth for any lifestyle retailer and expects to breakeven and reach $1 billion in GMV this year. That makes the company a very valuable player in the space. Their availability on mobile and desktop however, does give them an edge over closest competitor, Myntra.
Paytm
Aiming to be India’s brand new new tech conglomerate in the words of the CEO, Paytm has already been able to achieve part of that ambitious target. The company has been able to venture successfully into multiple spaces without spreading out too thin.
Armed with a thriving mobile wallet customer base and online payment portal, Paytm leveraged its cashback as a customer acquisition medium in stark contrast to other players in the business. The company’s e-commerce push so far has been aggressive and fearless and they’ve show no signs of slowing down.
Flipkart
Despite being under severe competition, Flipkart has been able to somehow contain the pressure and comfortably retain the coveted top slot in Indian online retail.
With over 2 million square-feet of warehouse space spread across the country, Flipkart is preparing for further super-expansion in the next few years. They have recently reiterated their commitment towards investing even more in logistics as they continue to expect growth.
Snapdeal
Snapdeal has been one of the toughest competitors for Flipkart in 2015. Having Freecharge in its belt also allows the company to counter Paytm with its own cashback system while holding its own against Flipkart and Amazon.
Shopclues
Shopclues may not have been in the media as much as the others in the list, but the portal is quickly gaining momentum and more importantly, a customer base. Their focus on low prices has been successful in attracting customers without a budget that’s too big. Having just entered the $1 Billion GMV club, Shopclues may well turn out to be the game changer in 2016.
The e-commerce battle is only about to get interesting in the next few years. The competition is fierce and it may still be too soon to predict a clear winner except of course, the Indian online consumer.
