Technology Adoption in the e-Commerce Market

With the evolution of Technology, the mainstream marketplace is shifting on to the digital sphere. To thrive in the increasing competition, organizations need to adapt and innovate.

What is the market size of eCommerce in India?

The Indian e-commerce industry has been on an upward growth trajectory. India’s e-commerce market has the potential to grow more than four folds to US$ 150 billion by 2022 supported by rising incomes and surge in internet users. Much growth of the industry has been triggered by increasing internet and smartphone penetration E-commerce and consumer internet companies in India received more than US$ 7 billion in private equity and venture capital in 2018. A young demographic profile, rising internet penetration, and relative better economic performance are the key drivers of this sector.

Since 2014, the Government of India has announced various initiatives namely, Digital India, Make in India, Start-up India, Skill India, and Innovation Fund. The Government of India’s policies and regulatory frameworks such as 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in B2B e-commerce and 100 percent FDI under automatic route under the market place model of B2C e-commerce are expected to further propel growth in the sectors.

In order to increase the participation of foreign players in the e-commerce field, the Indian Government hiked the limit of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the E-commerce marketplace model for up to 100 percent. In February 2019, the Government of India released the Draft National e-Commerce Policy, which encourages FDI in the marketplace model of e-commerce. Further, it states that the FDI policy for the e-commerce sector has been developed to ensure a level playing field for all participants.

The heavy investment of the Government of India in rolling out the fiber network for 5G will help boost e-commerce in India.

What are the technologies that you are adapting to facilitate the core activities of e-commerce businesses?

E-Commerce companies are born on cloud and we were are instrumental in enabling the entire ecosystem for e-commerce companies to function efficiently. ESDS offers a wide variety of solutions that prove beneficial for e-commerce companies. E-commerce generates a tremendous amount of consumer data, all this data goes through our BI tools and Analytics platform to provide valuable insights and enables a better understanding of the consumer behaviors and help create anefficient more profitable marketing strategy by targeting the right customers the right way.Consumer analytics plays a very vital role in how businesses maintain their market share and emerge successful in their ventures. The end goal here is to create a unified and connected user experience across platforms no matter where or how a customer reaches out to the company.Our AI-powered Chat-bots at present are able to create a seamless user experience and we are aligning our technologies to better suit the e-commerce ecosystem.

What are the new technological trends in the e-commerce market?

The most influential trend right now in the industry is the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, which again builds its entire strategy around providing a seamless customer experience. The growth in the online retail industry has had a cascading effect on the growth of various technologies.RFID and GPS technology have proven significant to IOT, enabling uninterrupted more efficient Inventory and Supply Chain Management. Blockchain is redefining alternative payment methods. Blockchain transactions take place on a single network, reducing or outright eliminating the need for intermediaries. Transaction speeds are limited only by the speed of the network and by the speed at which new blocks can be generated. Another advantage for customers is that Blockchain-based currencies do not expose personally identifiable information. Blockchain work well for payment processing because they balance speed and privacy. Technology adoption trends vary from business to business. For e.g., if we talk about Fintech like PayTm orFreechargeit is about secure and fast money transactions whereas companies like bookmyshow or Swiggy depend on AI and Analytics. Technology adoption will depend on the companies enable their customers. ESDS offers a unique proposition with its vertical scaling cloud platform that is capable of enabling all platforms in the e-commerce industry considering the wide range of solution we offer.

What are the challenges that you are facing in the implementation of these technologies?

Besides the major e-commerce giants like Amazon, FlipKart most e-commerce companies are Startups and the start small with limited funding and even when there is funding available most of these companies end up spending a majority of its funding on hiring workforce, much more workforce than required to show expansion instead of investing in technologies. Technology is now so pervasive that it has become integral to the business strategy of any corporation. They should allocate funds based on the relevance of the technology to the business in the immediate, short, medium, and long term.Top management, through their periodic reviews of budgets, can take stock of the recommendations made by the technicians and revise the company’s financial disbursement appropriately. This can minimize the wastage of funds while optimizing productivity.

Any other information that you would like to share?

E-commerce is an ever-evolving, fast-moving, competitive sector, and companies that fail to adapt, fail to survive. As technology has grown to offer organizations more opportunities to market themselves to prospective consumers, so too have e-commerce heads been forced to make a greater number of decisions on vendor partnerships. The sustained growth in digital technologies will continue to drive adaptation opportunities, and, more than ever, e-commerce companies will be forced to make choices that go beyond email, e-commerce and search platform relationships. The e-commerce industry has been directly influencing the micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME) in India by providing means of financing, technology, and training and has a favorable effect on other industries as well.