NE catches up to online shopping
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Guwahati, September 07, 2013: Online shopping is booming in the North East India region and according to the reports, smaller towns are ahead of the metros in this regard.

Exception for the national capital Delhi, online shoppings are more in the smaller towns than in the metros.

Towns from the North Eastern states are contributing to huge percentage when comes to online shopping.

Online shopping stores said smaller towns account for 55% of their business while the metros clock 45%.Prior to 2012, they commanded 55% business from the metros though Delhi and NCR continue to lead with 15% among all urban centres followed by Bangalore with 11% and Mumbai with a tad under 10%. Easier access to major footwear, apparel, accessories and gadget brands not available locally, growing trust in online vendors and a better delivery mechanism through tie-ups with local courier agencies are said to be the primary reasons.

In order to catch up with China on the online business, the online stores suggested that India has to get over the 'mental block'.

China has the e-commerce size of $190 billion compared to India's $2 billion.

"India is expected to have 400 million internet users by 2016 and 15% of them are likely to shop online.

The market is growing at 10-12% every year and at this rate, online shopping market in the country should touch $ 80 billion by 2020," said Ashutosh Lawania, co-founder ofmyntra.com, said here on Saturday.

Myntra tops the list of the fashion, footwear and accessories trading portals in terms of revenue.

Jabong and other sites follow.

For the online shopping sites, the Northeast accounts for 3-5% of annual turnover.

In Myntra's case, 50 urban centres besides Guwahati helped generate sizeable business during the past two years to merit focus on remote areas.

According to a survey, 68% shoppers are men 32% women and most of them they are in the age group of 20 to 30 .

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