We at MySmartPrice.com have done a study of the e-tailing stores in India and have analyzed what they sell. We’ve classified these stores into different types and categories based on what they sell. A lot of interesting numbers and facts have emerged out, some of which are hard to believe. So here’s what we have found out.
THE NUMBER GAME
TYPES AND CATEGORIES
WHAT THEY SELL
THE TOP GUNS – ALEXA INDIA RANKS
Rankings as on 15th May 2012
SOME QUIRKY STORE NAMES
THE REAL DATA
IMPORTANT TRENDS
- Brands are moving online with their own stores: Examples: NokiaShop, Puma, Reebook, Samsung, Fastrack, VIP etc
- Fashion is No 1: Top 3 Categories all belong to Fashion, with more than 130 stores (big and small) selling some or the other fashion products. Apart from this 91 stores deal exclusively in Fashion.
- Rise of Online Exclusive labels: Example: Zovi, Shersingh etc.
- Lingerie is Big: Over 39 stores sell Lingerie and Innerwear and some prominent names even using Lingerie as hooks on FB ads!
- Online stores of major offline players: Example: Futurebazaar, Cromaretail, The Mobile Store, Univercell etc
- Media Publishing Houses foray in ecommerce: Example: Homeshop18, BagitToday, Indiatimes Shopping, StarCJ etc
- Ecommerce Platforms gaining traction. Example: BuildaBazaar and Martjack.
- Popular (deal) sites pivoting to e-tailing: Example: Snapdeal, Koovs, SeventyMM, KyaZoonga etc
SOME INTERESTING STORES
Differentiation is the new motto in Indian ecommerce. The way some are doing it is simply picking a Niche. In our research, we ran into about 90 niche stores that sold nothing but one thing. Some deserve a special mention.
- SocialHeart.in: Exclusive handicrafts made by NGOs.
- YellowLeg.com: The Travel Only Book store.
- Bewakoof.com: Cool Tshirts with great ribtickling one liners.
- Bajaao.com: Musical Instruments and Select Albums
- Induna.com: Great collection of Movies, Films and TV serials
- WilliamPenn.net: Pens from popular bands such as Faber Castell, Parker etc.
- OnlinePrasad.com: Pooja items and temple offerings from popular temples.
- GiftBig.com: Gift Vouchers from top retailers.
- BulbTiger.com: Indoor lighting fittings and chandeliers.
We hope the study was useful to you and you’ve come across some truly interesting new facts and figures. The world of ecommerce is ever changing with a constant churn in the number of stores. Feel free to subscribe to our updates on e-commerce and share, tweet or +1 this post.
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An Interesting Case Study done. Would have been better if you could find some internal stats like which niche is flourishing and what stores are consumer favorites.
Thanks Amit. Will tackle that in a future post.
Interesting study.
Jabong has picked up very fast for the 4th position (alexa wise).
Yes Chirag,
Jabong’s is a story that shall act as inspiration for more players to enter the Indian e-commerce industry.
Like the coverage of so many sites and new sites keep cropping every now and then. recently i heard about styleos.com, stylishyou.in. stylishyou got in the news recently.. but sad to see so many sites are closing as well because of stiff competition..
True Riicha
The market is far from maturity at the moment. Expect more high profile entries and exits in the coming months.
It’s a great stats and good research Sita…
It would be great if you can pick out some of the common ingredients of success and failure of these Indian E-commerce site…
Thanks Harsh….will attempt that in the future though I guess that will be quite difficult considering the fact that not much is known about guys that fail.
Great infographic and very surprise that most of online stores are selling products from fashion category but in practical people are prefer to buy electronics items from online stores.
Excellent report, never realized there has been so many eCommerce stores in India, there might be another couple of hundreds in the making.
Wow !!
, I would like to know which stores are actually using Social Media (Twitter) for their businesses.
This is something very resourceful for us to know about the Power of Indian e-Commerce
Anyways Thanks for the report
Great work!. I would also like to know how these e-Commerce using facebook and twitter for viral effect and what extent they are getting an users.
Great study team. Thanks a lot. I think insurance aggregators should also have been added to this list…
Good study.This was long due.People are getting confused that everyday new players come into market.
Also it is time for you to explore new markets.
More essential commodities with high quality brands should be introduced.
Kids wear,toys and food products will be a good option.Commodities which comes to ones door stop is the need of the urban life; save time and energy.
V..Sreekumar
Any marketplace models in India? For example, interior items (table, beds, etc) or travel agent? Say, etsy for interior or exterior and or travel/tour packages?
very nice and informative article….
I have recently bought couple of undergarment from mezkart.com… they only sells mens undergarment and i think you should include them in the list.
don’t know how much business they are doing, but there service is satisfactory.
Thank you Kunal.
Shall include Mezkart in the next iteration.
Last section seem to be the best…Niche stories.
I think traditional verticals are nearly saturating in Indian market and it is time to develop niche categories. These categories benefit from low investment requirement (because of low competition) and can leverage power of e-commerce to emerge as efficient and alternative sales channel to traditional retail stores/ showrooms.
Of all the categories mentioned, lighting seems to be the toughest as it deals with fragile items and has high shipping costs due to high weight/ size. Bulbtiger.com can emerge as winner if they manages to crack the supply chain related problems as lighting industry is highly fragmented and unorganized.
True Parul,
The amount of niche stores was a revelation for us too. Bulb tiger is thus far unchallenged in this space, but however may just face stiffer competition if say an established offline player enters the market.
i think this space is difficult for everyone, that’s why no one is operating in this space. Jabong/ Fabfurnish are trying to address it but this space is far too complicated and vast to fit in vast home products site. Local players are unlikely to enter as not many know e-commerce well. Some may but these guyz have head start and there is scope for at least 4-5 good players in every domain.
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Comprehensive analysis, I knew that Indian e-commerce market/industry is an avalanche. It would be nice if you guys show some more info-graphic material pertinent to Indian e-commerce market. Good start though!!
What is remarkable that none of the online e comm brands other than a few, who advertise on TV are anywhere on the alexa ratings. Only 3 or 4 out 16.
Does this not say something about mass media for online
Online brands are best built online!
Gautam Kumar
Very nice report on Indian E-Commerce Industry…………..
Hope well new niches will emerge soon.
Shopable.in ecommerce platform is also gaining good momentum. They have an impressive set of features and quick turn around time. Best ecommerce platform for SME to setup their online store with minimum investment.
WOW. Nice research and was wondering few days back about this topic and glad I found ur post and it was useful indeed.
Thank you for the feedback
Thanks Srivathsan for liking our research.
good and useful site – comparision of price is very useful – i got a jeffery archer book @ 195/- which some sites are quoting above 300/-
Just saw http://www.socialheart.in – the first one in the niche list. They are doing something really amazing. Some of products are so nice – the bags especially. BulbTiger.com compeltely strikes out too. Do you guys wanna promote these niche players?
Thanks Richa. Glad to hear that you like what we are doing
Thanks for listing http://www.socialheart.in in your interesting stores section. For anyone with a social heart it is the place to be and therefore the name
Please do check us out and give us feedback.
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E-Commerce is today’s need . After some years people going to buy online. People like u save our time & that’s gr8 thing. Bcoz time never come back. U saved our time .Thanks u .
Greate article, helps in understanding the potential of e-Commerce in India. it would be great if you could also include the untapped industries in the e-Commerce space..
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Great job and nice post. Expecting your next post carrying more details.
Interestingly even Bhagwan is now available onlinehttp://www.OnlinePrasad.com
Interesting article. But the list misses http://www.comma365.com – a books only online bookstore. Its a store that offers “experience” online and they were the organisers of a lit festival recently too.
Hi Admin,
thanks for this information.
i need one help, i am looking for name to keep for my E-Commerce.
Can anyone here help me out…..?
if possible you can mail me at –> “rohith_kumar222@yahoo.co.in”
Thanks & Regards
Rohith