The Click Bait

Indian consumers are increasingly favouring online shopping for their clothing needs and turning to international brands for their purchases. Chitra Balasubramaniam analyses this e-phenomenon.

- Chitra Balasubramaniam

The internet has managed to create a space without any geographical barriers. Thanks to e-commerce, physical distance is no longer an impediment to purchases. One has to still navigate through logistics, customs and duties, but it has provided customers with access to hundreds and thousands of retailers on one platform. Sitting in the confines of one’s home, without moving out, one has the luxury to flip through and see thousands of products before finalising on one. There is also the advantage of competitive pricing. With apparel, there is a belief that people like to feel what they buy. Customers like to touch and wear what one is buying to ensure that it fits them and looks good. Others have opined that apparel cannot be bought online; taste is too individualistic to be clubbed on a mass scale. However, crowds and long queues at the trial rooms of stores at malls, lack of parking space, and long distances make conventional shopping an inconvenient option for many. Many prefer shopping from the comforts of one’s home. An average working citizen spends at least an hour each day to commute to their place of work. Travelling a similar distance on a day off to go shopping for some clothes is not considered an exciting option. The biggest plus for online portals is convenience.

This further reiterated by a report titled ‘Digital Retail 2020’ by Google and A T Kearney. It points out that, “Online shopping has become a way of life for a number of Indians and the total number of online shoppers is estimated to grow 3.5 times to touch 175 million by 2020, from 50 million in 2015. E-tailing will drive 25 per cent of the total organised retail sales of $240 billion in India by 2020 and will reach $60 billion in gross merchandising value.”

CRUNCHING THE DATA