Over the past few years, there’s been a perceptible change on the front pages of the newspapers, the ‘pink’ business papers in particular. The stories on the traditional brick-and-mortar businesses are gradually yielding space to the new brat pack, the ecommerce entrepreneurs and their businesses, many of which are turning conventional business wisdom on its head and changing the rules of the game. As the internet dominates the way in which Indians connect, share and now shop, ecommerce has become the next big thing. Consequently, the big home-grown marketplace majors like Flipkart and Snapdeal are slugging it out with global giant Amazon and drawing out new strategies to woo the consumer. Whether it is through deep discounts or deals, the ecommerce big boys are currently spending all their energies in attracting consumers, changing their shopping habits, hoping that profitability will be next. An Assocham-PwC study has pegged the Indian ecommerce sector at $17 billion currently, expecting it to grow at a sharp 35 percent CAGR, touching $100 billion in five years. Flipkart and Snapdeal are already multibillion dollar businesses, and growing.
(This story appears in the 20 March, 2015 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)