E-Commerce In India: Scope, Challenges & Future

Over the past decade, the selling and buying of goods have been changed considerably, thanks to the internet! E-commerce has completely transformed the customer shopping experience today because of wide the adaption of different technologies and devices. Secured online payment methods have also been a contributing factor for the boon of this industry. The biggest surprise however is the increase in shopping online on EMI.

At one time, small items such as clothes and shoes were the most bought online. Today, consumers are not hesitant to make heavier purchases from e-commerce sites with the introduction of concept of emi. Fintech sites such as Finomena provide consumers the option to buy home essentials such as furniture on emi. So basically, you can now easily buy your dream Urban Ladder furniture at a convenient price that you can pay per month at a rate fixed by you! That is how much EMI has made payment easy and revolutionised the purchasing trends of the e-commerce sector. For platforms such as Finomena, you are even eligible to buy furniture on emi and other essentials without owning credit/debit card.

Availability of easy financing options is a key need in e-commerce and the key to a brighter future for this sector lies behind new EMI options that will enable customers who don't have a credit card to avail real-time credit for high-ticket purchases. 

Why EMI?

Let us take the example of Finomena-

Loans are given out on specific categories are considered as ‘good’ or ‘productive’ on Electronics, Laptops, Smartphone and Furniture. They do this by making use of a unique combination of big data and finance to determine the credit worthiness of an individual. The platform works as an intuitive model to ensure that the disbursement of loans happen in a viable and efficient manner.

Currently based on the digital behaviour and analysis of a person, credits are assigned and given. 

The Scope

The future looks very bright for both EMI and E-commerce as more and more Banks will venture into partnering with e-commerce players to provide lucrative offers like cashback, Easy EMI on furniture and other essentials, secured transaction, Loyalty points to promote card or net banking payments. PayPal, CCAvenue and other payment gateways enable secure transactions on digital platforms. All players in online retail ecosystem need to increase customer awareness about the benefits of cashless payments.

What we see happening now is that EMI options are available only for a specific product. The future could hold the possibility of EMI being applicable on the total order value and could be split across several products across different categories.

Incorporation of loans and other methods of payment are changing the way e-commerce industry has been functioning and is influencing more and more people to switch to online portals for all their purchases.

With predictions of such variations in emi awaited in the future, such options offer great value addition to the customer’s shopping experience. How this will affect the traditional markets in the years to come is something that we can only wait and watch.