Cosmetics and fragrance help drive Indian online retail

By Simon Pitman

- Last updated on GMT

Cosmetics and fragrance help drive Indian online retail

Related tags India Bric

Online retail is continuing to expand at world-leading growth rates, helped along by the continued popularity of cosmetic and fragrance purchases.

Currently the market is estimated to be growing at an average annual rate of 15% thanks to the addition of an extra 7 million consumers during the course of the last year, according to a report jointly compiled by the Indian trading association ASSOCHAM and comScore.

This means that in 2013 the online retail category penetration grew by 65% to reach a monthly visitor number total of 53.4 million people.

The report, entitled ‘State of E-commerce in India, underlines the fact that out of the BRIC markets, India and Brazil are continuing to post similar online retail growth rates, while China and Russia are surging ahead with growth rates in excess of 30%.

Cosmetics and fragrance leads online retail growth

Amongst the highest growth in India’s online retail categories has been the cosmetics and fragrance category, which last year increased by 12%, thanks mainly to increasing number of female internet users.

According to the study, females now account for 75% of users in the 15 – 34 age group, which means that women now account for 40% of all internet users in the country, and also goes some of the way to explaining why India has one of the younger online user populations, globally.

In line with the younger age of internet users in the country, the study also finds that the 15 – 24 age groups accounts for the fast growing age segment, although this age group is not noted for accessing retail sites.

Flopkart is the most visited retail site

Besides cosmetics and fragrances, the report also notes that the apparel, health and home furnishings are the categories that are also contributing to online retails growth in India.

The fastest growing category is apparel, which the report noted grew by a massive 66% in the course of the last year.

“Flipkart group of websites (including recently acquired Myntra) are the most visited retail sites with over 26 million UVs for the month of July 2014 (excludes visitors using mobile internet and mobile apps).  Jabong (with 23.5 million UVs), Amazon (with 16.9 million UVs )”,​ adds the paper.

Related topics Market Trends

Related news

Show more