Executive Summar
In the crowning glory days of communications its being said today that "Internet is long dead", and how? In it’s one of the most recent articles in MQI authors talked about "Internet of Things" thereby simply meaning that from now onwards the ubiquity of Internet will be long dead. From now onwards Internet will be used from an ever expanding "Cloud". This is the cloud of cloud computing and what else you may deem fit to call it. But this cloud has arrived. Now one can use net, can carry net and make use of net as and when required and can pay for it. How does the future of net would pan out given such radical changes happening in the field of net touch points? It means a lot of action will change. For enterprise it foretells ease-of-use and ease-to-pay models. For end users it means more and more touch points to bring net home. Today there is a plethora of gadgets for consumers to access net and if we add up gadgets available out there to consume net the list goes on and on. Furthermore add to this network and wired gadgets wherein one gadget talking to other gadget. So the possibilities are getting endless as "technology touch points" for consumers are getting endless. All things are becoming ubiquitous as Internet touches all things be it social, personal, professional etc. This is what "Internet of Things" is all about. So not just "access" becomes multi-dimensional but so is the "paying" part as you pay per consumption and access through a cloud. The "Now" factor of net has arrived. So what will consumer do in such a changing scenario of "Internet of Things?" Consumers are becoming more alive and interactive. Now to buy things on net the decision making cycle starts very early on. One of the most interesting factors that marketers has not taken into account is that consumers decide and filter-on their choice basket of goods to be purchased based on recommendations from friends relatives and peers. They hit net well prepared and go for the kill. And the most interesting trend that has been observed is that post-purchase users are very active now. They love to share their experiences with others. E-marketers have been too focused in creating awareness and noise about their brands and have overlooked these two key patterns that are fast emerging on the horizon. So the "Internet of Things" is directly influencing the online purchase-cycle of a buyer. Consumers today are flocking to sites that are offering rich array of features like price comparison, product-comparison, consumer and expert ratings and visuals. E-retail sites like Amazon.com that offers such features in abundance are the real clinchers for consumers as these features are fast becoming the important influencers for buyers while making their purchase decisions. Latest research also shows consumers lively relationship with many brands post-purchase also. So where does online buyers flock to when they have to buy their wares online. They are flocking more and more to big ticket portals like Amazon.com rather than branded sites. However the difference in buyers approach is owing to the fact that branded sites are still to adopt key purchase decision influencing features online. Worldwide the market penetration rates for mobiles, PC’s, broadband and other gadgets differ but countries in South East Asia are witnessing high action as of today. Developed markets are already running on a high wave of adoption. BRIC countries riding on their increasingly high economic growth and rising demand patterns is now driving the Internet adoption and its usage be it E-governance, E-travel and E-retail. www.estatsindia.com 4
India and China are one of the fastest growing economies in this part of the world. The present study aims to size the B2C E-commerce market space in India inclusive of its segments. It includes online travel, classifieds, digital downloads and online retail in terms of the goods and services sold online either through a catalog site or through a branded sites. The study provides inputs and data sets to help E-marketers negotiate emerging trends and patterns in the buying behavior of users. Based on these inputs they can easily set their threshold spend decisions on their digital presence. They can also explore possibilities to expand into Indian B2C E-commerce market space based on this report. All future projections made can be also be used to set the pace for future market expansions. To fuel consumer touch points with meaningful interactions and insights E-marketers require a paradigm shift from traditional way of spending on digital media. This report aims to help e-marketers and also tend to set the course for all their future decisions.