Fashion retail to cloud e-commerce portal with 35pc revenue by 2020

BANGALORE, INDIA: Fashion retail on e-commerce portal will constitute 35% of the total online retail revenue generated in India by 2020, according to Nitin Bawankule, director for E-commerce and Online, Google at India Fashion Forum, 2015.

Bawankule said, “By 2020, India is expected to generate $100 billion online retail revenue out of which $35 billion will be through fashion e-commerce. Online apparel sales are set to grow 4 times in coming years.”

According to Google research, every 3rd shopping search on Google is fashion related and the queries on fashion are growing at 66 percent year-on-year.

Bawankule pointed out the rising growth in the online population in India from the present 40 million to 100 million by 2016 and 250 million by 2020. By 2018, India is set to witness 500 million internet users whereas 280 million smart-phone users could be the key drivers for e-commerce portals.

Quoting Forester Consumer Research 2014, Bawankule said that new users will fuel the growth in online sales by purchasing online in the next 12 months that will drive 26-31 percent  increase in apparels, footwear, baby-care and skincare products.

Sharing his perspective about online retail, Hetal Kotak, Brand Director, ColorPlus and Park Avenue, said, “We are now looking for exclusive launches through e-commerce. Both online and offline will continue to co-exist in today’s generation. There was a lot of pressure in last 2-3 years to adopt the e-commerce platform but now we are open to use this channel strategy.”

Rishi Agarwal, head-strategic alliances, fashion, Snapdeal.com, said, “Tier II and III towns constitute 2/3rd of our business today. We foresee a varied range of choices for our consumers with more and more international brands coming to the country.”