E-comm players work on strategies to woo the next 200 million

Having won close to 300 million customers, e-commerce companies are now reaching out to the next 200 million potential e-shoppers. Experts say getting to the first 300 million, who live in the country’s top 30 cities and towns, hasn’t been easy. As for the potential universe of the next 200 million, experts believe it’s somewhat different; the consumers are less well-off, less trusting of online transactions and not as familiar with latest trends. But they’re as aspiring as anyone else. That means retailers will need to carefully curate the merchandise and price products to match the purchasing power, says Ankur Pahwa, partner, EY. Buyers would need a lot more hand-holding and this would call for a lot more interaction across multi-level touch points, perhaps even micro sites with a simple user interface within the main platform. In sum, Pahwa believes there will be a far greater use of the 4Vs – voice, vernacular, visual and video.

Anurag Mathur, partner, PWC, points out local brands could be a lot more more in demand. That would require e-commerce platforms to onboard more local vendors and enable and equip them to sell better. Also, electronic gadgets, which typically account for the bulk of the merchandise, might need to yield space to apparel, fashion products and even groceries.