A Review of E – Commerce in India: The Past, Present, and the Future

Abstract

Electronic Commerce or E-commerce nowadays has become a home affair for every one of us. From merely being a marketing platform to one-touch buying and selling, the E-commerce market in India has undergone tremendous growth. The objective of this paper is to identify and examine the factors responsible for the E-commerce boom in India and to recommend strategies to accelerate the growth of the E-commerce industry. We examine the historical trends and provide evidence on how the Indian E-commerce sector is positioned for exponential growth. Through the literature survey, we identify the emerging markets, trends, and impact of COVID – 19 on the industry. From this analysis, it was found that the focus to date has only been on the demand side of the E-Commerce sector - to generate the demand. With great success in that direction, we identify the need to shift our focus on interventions/support to the supply side of the sector. Based on historical trends, a set of strategies have been recommended to the policymakers, using which the growth of the sector can be accelerated.

Keywords: E – Commerce, E – tail, Electronic Commerce, Digital India, Future of Commerce, E – grocery, Post – Pandemic commerce, COVID – 19

JEL Classification: L81, M21, O11, O53