The Digital Bridge Between Vendors and Consumers The revenue generated from this sector is approximately 39 Billion USD at the moment and hence, needs to be understood

With the advent of many digital based portals, e-commerce is becoming an important facet of consumer preferences today. We have online shopping available for everything- from home grown tomatoes, to luxurious houses. The one crucial aspect to consider here is how digitization is changing the face of consumers interaction with sellers. While in India, people still prefer their hallmark greeting cards and pick up their choice of fabrics from their age old shop, it cannot be ignored that more and more people are bending towards the ease of a click to fulfil their shopping needs.

While the big entities are benefitting from this whole set up, vendors who are still stuck with their age old traditional methods still find it a little challenging to keep up with these trends. To that effect, here is understanding how online marketplace platforms are the ideal bridge required by between vendors, sellers and consumers. Read on to know more:

Understanding How E-commerce Industry in India Works

First things first, to participate in any phenomenon, understanding it becomes very important. You'd be surprised to know that India is actually the fastest growing market for the E-commerce sector. The revenue generated from this sector is approximately 39 Billion USD at the moment.

This revenue is estimated to increase to nearly 120 billion USD in the year 2020. This reflects on an annual growth of 51%, easily the highest recorded in the world. The main reason for India becoming such a hot hub for e-commerce activity is because of the smartphone and internet penetration. The cheap data rates are another probable cause of endless browsing by consumers.

Another interesting number is reflected when we analyze the potential growth trend of India's internet economy. At the moment, it is expected to double from 125 USD recorded in April 2017 to 250 billion USD in the year 2020. E-commerce is touted to be a significant contributor in this growth.

Government Initiatives Taken for This Sector
The Modi Government is turning all tides high and low for making India a powerful economy and technological superpower. There are many initiatives in place for bringing up digitization and making it accessible to every citizen of the country.

When it comes to e-commerce, one such initiative that has really helped bridge the gap between vendors and sellers is Udaan. It is a B2B online trade platform which connects small and medium size manufacturers to online retailers. It also helps them by providing logistics, tech support and payments. This initiative is garnering a lot of traction with sellers in over 80 cities delivering to 500 cities across the nation.

Co-existence of Big Fish, Small Fish

In India, there is a local vendor at every corner. We are seeing that increasingly, there is a fragmented vendor market who is in need of getting a better market access. The main issue that comes with E-commerce platforms for such vendors is that they come with a huge gap of knowledge. Adopting this technology gets tough for people who are technically still not exposed to the new innovations in the market.

The big fish here, such as Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal may be a good place to put up your products, but for most vendors- it is hurting their business. The prohibitive measures of these e-commerce platforms is making it tough for these vendors to stay competitive in this era of digital age.

However, there is a solution to this too. For small vendors, approaching smaller peer to peer hubs and marketplaces is a great idea. They hold quite a lot of potential for increasing the total addressable market of the vendors. Additionally, there are basics available as well for these vendors to get a hands on experience on using these technologies and putting them to their advantage.

The Road Ahead

It is a known fact that the e-commerce industry is making quite an impact on the micro, small and medium enterprises. It provides financing, training a technology while also having quite a favorable cascading effect on other industries. Additionally, tech enabled innovations like payment gateways, digital advertisements are also making e-commerce quite handy for the consumers.

The kind of growth that we are seeing currently in e-commerce just needs to be channelized properly. With the right measures, it will not only boost employment, but also provide many better revenue opportunities. Customers would also be able to get access to better products and services in the long run. Hence, we can safely say that the potential held by this industry for bridging business gaps between vendors and sellers is huge. Ultimately, sellers reach the consumers, giving way to vendors for ensuring their sales increase with this digital tool at their hands.