In the first WATBlog panel discussion that we held in IIT last year a point was made about how the fortunes of online advertising in India is connected with the growth of ecommerce. The same point was reiterated again in the WATBlog panel at IIM Bangalore as well a few months ago. Now if we consider this a fair assumption then what Visa has found via its consumer survey study can be at best termed as disappointing when it comes to online ecommerce in India.
Visa in its Consumer Monitor study for Q2 2009 have come up with the following findings:
- Confidence in ecommerce: One in three respondents polled reported that they were very confident when using their payment cards online.
- Driver of online shopping: “Freedom to shop anytime” is main driver for online shopping
- Top three reasons for shopping online: ‘the freedom to shop anytime’ (75 percent), ‘the ability to compare prices and save money’ (74 percent) and ‘save time’ (74 percent).
- Average Annual Spend: Average of US$2,086 (thats less than 1 lakh!) in the past 12 months by Indian while respondents from Asia Pacific spent an average of US$2,526 during the same period.
- Where are Indians Shopping: Indians are shopping more on overseas eCommerce websites
- Most popular online purchase items: In the past 12 months is was music downloads (50 percent), airline/airline tickets (49 percent) and travel information (without booking functions; 49 percent).
The bifurcation of the spends by Indians is given below:
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All in all these numbers as said before are at best disappointing. The funny part is that at a panel discussion lately I heard panelists talking about the recent 3rd factor verification on credit cards enabled by RBI and how it has made online shopping secure. My point is has it made any easy to shop online? Not really! My personal view is RBI should have kept this 3rd factor verification optional and let users who already trust the online medium work with their regular card for online shopping. Imposing a rule which may not be applicable to all is just not beneficial to a nascent Industry.
I seriously think, it is an irrelevant study. E-commerce never took off in India. I wonder , why they took up this study at the first place.
@arkid – To try and give a push to ecommerce
When Visa says “Average Indian”, who exactly are they referring to? SEC 1, 2?
I guess this study makes sense only only if they’re talking about the upper strata of society here.
Its a sample survey of online Indians.. Average indian who is online and uses ecommerce
This news will certainly surprise an average Indian.:)
@Rajiv Pushing eCommerce is one thing. But to expect an average Indian to spend 1 lac online is expecting too much. We Indians love going to shop with friends.I actually asked a few *average Indians* around me.. and each one thinks 1 lac is asking for too much..
I think an average Indian uses e-commerce only to book tickets online…. I doubt if people prefer to shop online
I prefer to shop online using cash cards as they are safe
shopping online is a time saver , fuel saver and overall money saver.
e-commerce in India needs a lot of media marketing and promotion, once this is done most of the average Indians will try to buy online.