AKAMAI INDIA

ONLINE RETAIL
REPORT
CAPITALIZING ON
DIGITAL POTENTIAL
 India Online Retail Report 2018

CONTENTS
Executive Summary 01

Industry Overview
B2C vs. B2B 05

Navigating Market Complexities

Reluctant online shoppers 07

Pushing for digital transactions 07

Evolving distribution networks 08

Accommodating mobile 08

Cybersecurity leaves many vulnerable 10

Profitability remains elusive 12

Winning Differentiation Strategies and Best Practices

Satisfy a niche 15

Optimize for mobile 15

Scale as needed 16

Stay customer-focused 16

Boost shopper engagement with rich online experiences 17

Lead with security best practices 17

Top 10 Predictions 18
 India online retail report 2018
India online retail report 2018

EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
As an emerging online retail market, India promises
to reward those companies that strategically
embrace opportunities. The key is to understand
the online retail and offline retail landscape in India
and plan accordingly. This report provides insight
into the overall B2B and B2C Indian online retail
market, along with the common challenges and the
best practices for succeeding.

01
 India Online Retail Report 2018

Industry Overview
Online retail accounts for a small percentage of retail
sales in India, but for a large country like India, even
small is significant. The digital economy in India is
1
projected to reach $4 trillion by 2020. Within that,
industry experts say explosive online retail growth lies
ahead. In fact, according to Forrester, India is the
2
fastest growing online retail market in the world.
Online retail in India is estimated to grow over
1,200% to $200 billion (Rs 13,30,550 crore) by 2026,
up from $15 billion in 2016, according to a recent
report by financial services firm Morgan Stanley. By
then, Morgan Stanley expects India to have 475
million online shoppers, up from 60 million in 2016,
and predicts online retail will account for 12% of
India’s overall retail market, from just 2% last year.

60,000

52,301

50,000
45,206

37,979
40,000
Sales in million USD

31,123
30,000

25,076

20,059
20,000
16,073

10,000

0
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Online retail sales in India from 2016 to 2022

(in million U.S. dollars)
SOURCE: Statista, Online Retail and Online Shopping in India - Statistics & Facts

1 The Economic Times, Digital economy can reach $4 trillion in 4 years: Tech sector to government, June 18, 2017
2 IndiaRetailing.com, Online Retail Boom in India: Why online shopping is here to stay, May 19, 2017
02
 India Online Retail Report 2018

$86

$46 $25 $38

$149 $64
$93 $16

$861 $1,246
2016 2021

$681 $1,089

Online Retail Sales (USD in billion)

CHINA JAPAN SOUTH AUSTRALIA INDIA
KOREA

According to Morgan Stanley, growth is being
driven by a combination of rising Internet
penetration, a drop in data access costs, a shift to
smartphones, and a flow of credit to consumers
3
and microenterprises. In other words, India’s
digital infrastructure, user base, and accessibility
are rapidly improving.
This is consistent with CB Insights’ assertion that the
following key trends are, in part, driving Amazon and
Alibaba to aggressively pursue online retail in India:
• Global financial systems are going digital and
mobile
6
• Internet penetration is increasing

All of this ongoing digital transformation in the
country is expected to increase India’s total
Internet user base to 829 million by 2021 (59% of
the total population), from 373 million (28% of the
4
population) in 2016, while the total number of
networked devices in the country is expected to
grow to 2 billion by 2021.
5
Online retail companies in India can glean some
lessons from China. While the Chinese online retail
market is far bigger than India’s, the exploits of two
local behemoths — JD.com and Alibaba — offer
valuable takeaways. As in India, online retail migrated
from rural to urban areas, resulting in two distinct
markets. Urban China was dominated by young,
spendthrift consumers; small towns and villages were
dominated by an older, more frugal crowd. As a result,
companies found it difficult to apply a one-size-fits-all
strategy to China’s online retail market, which is set to
grow from $750 billion to $1.7 trillion by 2020,
according to a Goldman Sachs estimate.

3 YourStory, India growing fastest in online retail, says study, February 11, 2017
4 ETCIO.com, Internet users in India to double by 2021: Cisco VNI, June 9, 2017
5 Ibid.
6 CB Insights, Amazon Vs. Alibaba: How The Online Retail Giants Stack Up In The Fight To Go Global, March 2, 2018 03
 India Online Retail Report 2018

1.2 BILLION
POPULATION
28 STATES
23 OFFICIAL
LANGUAGES
That said, India is a more
complicated market than China.
With thousands of sub-cultures and
numerous languages and more than
7
1.2 billion people, India is a very
diverse country. Different regions
have their own distinct cultures: 28
states and seven territories,
according to the World Health
Organization.8 There is no official
language in India, according to a
Gujarat High Court ruling in 2010,
and the Constitution of India
officially recognizes 23 official
languages and Hindi is the official
language of the government.9 In fact,
59% of India’s residents speak
something other than Hindi,
10
according to The Times of India.

7 Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook

8 World Health Organization, WHO’s Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE)
9 The Times of India, There’s no national language in India: Gujarat High Court, Jan 25, 2010
10 Ibid. 04

B2B vs. B2C
At a high level, online retail in India can be broken
down into business-to-business (B2B) and
business-to-consumer (B2C). By 2020, India’s B2B
online retail market is projected to grow by 2.5
11
times to Rs 45 lakh crore. This growth is much
bigger than what is anticipated for India’s B2C
commerce, estimated to be about Rs 1.86 lakh
12
crore by 2020. B2B online retail is more lucrative
than B2C in India because of larger sales volumes
and the ability to sell without heavy discounting.
13
Both B2C and B2B online retail in India are
dominated by a handful of players. However,
within those top-level categories are many
sub-categories.
Domestic online retail
This refers to native Indian brands and online
retail players such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and
TataCliq. India-based retailers such as Shoppers
Stop and Croma have also expanded to sell
online.
Cross-border online retail
This category is reserved for Indian shoppers
purchasing from countries other than India. The
U.S. is one of the top ten countries for this type of
shopping. Businesses outside India selling to
Indian shoppers must address high shipping
costs, import duties and the complexities
associated with returns and exchanges.
Marketplaces
Because the Indian government has allowed
100% foreign domestic investment (FDI) in B2B
online retail, global companies such as Walmart
and Alibaba are showing interest. In fact, Amazon
and eBay, among others, compete against
domestic marketplace operators like Flipkart and
Snapdeal. According to CB Insights, Amazon’s
marketplace revenue in India grew by 105% for
the year ending March 31, 2017.14
11 Business Standard, B2B online retail to touch Rs 45 lakh cr by 2020 in India, September 4, 2015
12 Ibid.
13 Quartz India, Amazon and Alibaba are battling it out for India’s $300-billion B2B online retail market, September 27, 2016
14 CB Insights, Amazon Vs. Alibaba: How The Online Retail Giants Stack Up In The Fight To Go Global, March 2, 2018
15 Quartz India, India’s startup ecosystem is finally going beyond just online retail and cabs, November 3, 2017
India Online Retail Report 2018
Vertically focused marketplaces include the likes
of ShipServ for the maritime industry and
MFG.com for the manufacturing industry.
Marketplaces enabled or run by Farfetch,
Zalando, Mirakl and others are also proving to be
popular in B2C.
Strict rules apply to these marketplaces. The
entity running a marketplace cannot own any of
the inventory or allow more than 25% of all sales
from one vendor to its group companies.
Conditions also restrict discounting.
Inventory-based online retail
In this model, the online retail provider must own
the inventory and run all aspects of the online
retail business. Alibaba of China operates under
this model.
Single-brand online retail
This refers to a company that owns (or manages)
and sells a single brand in its brick-and-mortar
stores and expands to also sell through its online
retail store (think Sony, Nokia, IBM, Maruti,
Mother Dairy).
Multi-brand online retail
In this model, an online retail store sells more than
one brand provided by multiple manufacturers.
Examples include Planet Fashion, Bata, Jumbo
Electronics and Car Bazaar. This could also fall
under the marketplace model.
THE B2B ONLINE
RETAIL MARKET
IS HEATING UP.
Nearly 50% of the firms founded
in India in 2017 operate in the
B2B space. In total, B2B startups
now comprise about 40% of the
15
Indian startup ecosystem.”
05
NAVIGATING
MARKET
COMPLEXITIES

When it comes to some of the challenging aspects of
conducting online retail in India, wary shoppers, complex
logistics, and inefficient payment systems top the list.
Reluctant online shoppers
India’s retail landscape tends to be dominated
by small, independent stores that are often
family-run. In turn, India’s consumers have been
reluctant online shoppers due to a strong
personal connection with these small local
retailers that can’t always be replicated digitally.
Characterized by a wide range of demographics
and technology awareness and comfort, India
cannot be approached in a one-size-fits-all
manner. The hinterland (aka small towns and
villages) is dominated by less sophisticated
consumers. Their lack of online retail experience
drives them to insist on cash-on-delivery payment,
forcing retailers to keep local warehouses
stocked. Cash on delivery accounts for 70% of the
online retail industry’s orders, and costs Rs 40 per
16
delivery and even more in the hinterland.
Conversely, a significant portion of India’s
population now travels the globe, exposing them
to more brands and stores.17
People prefer to pay Cash on Delivery [CoD].
67% of the total online retail
transactions in India are CoD.”
16 YourStory, A year after demonetisation, e-commerce customers continue to take CoD route, November 9, 2017
17 IndiaRetailing.com, The resurgence of shopping malls in India, March 6, 2018
18 IndiaRetailing.com, Online Retail Boom in India: Why online shopping is here to stay, May 19, 2017
India Online Retail Report 2018
Pushing for digital transactions
At the same time, government initiatives such as
“DigiShala” are intended to build a cashless
economy. Supported by other initiatives like the
National Optical Fibre Network and the
introduction of Unified Payments Interface,
DigiShala is intended to drive a fast transition to
digital payments. Complementing this is the fact
that India is moving from an archaic and
complicated tax system to a unified and
completely digital system (Goods and Services
Tax – GST).
As of November 8, 2016, “demonetization” urged
people to use smartphones to make payments.
Since then, digital wallets and credit cards have
gained traction. As of Feb 2017, according to the
RBI, there were 330 million debit cards and 30
million credit cards in India, together facilitating
44 million digital transactions per month (across
all retail transactions). Most of this shopping
happens in urban areas, covering around 80
million Indians, half of whom shop on online retail
websites.
18
07

Evolving distribution networks
At the same time, distribution networks tend to be
weak, partly due to low adoption of the kind of
technology needed to support a modern supply
chain network. The trucking industry is fragmented,
and there are few providers of organized logistical
services. Add in a complex tax structure, and the
supply chain challenges can be overwhelming and
costly.
Note that Amazon India — with $5 billion in
backing from its parent — spent much of 2017
figuring out how to extend its reach into the
19
hinterland. That expansion included a broader
network of delivery centres combined with
third-party partnerships for last-mile delivery and
more products. Today, Amazon India derives 85%
20
of its business from the hinterland.
Similarly, Flipkart gets 60% of business from areas
outside the metro cities. In May 2017, it announced
21
plans to build 100 new delivery centres. It also
pioneered a light mobile web application to
manage transactions on spotty networks from the
hinterland.
Flipkart and Amazon
by the Numbers
Total users:
Transactions per month:
Revenue per transaction:
21
19 The Economic Times, A rough road awaits e-commerce companies as they race to the
Indian hinterlands, January 21, 2018
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
India Online Retail Report 2018
Accommodating mobile
India has the world’s second-largest number of
smartphones and it continues to grow. About 23%
of Indian Internet users stated that they used a
mobile phone for making a purchase in 2016,
making India one of the leading digital markets for
22
mobile online retail penetration. About 27% of the
digital buyers in the country said they made an
online purchase via their smartphones/mobiles on
a monthly basis, and 24% said they purchased
23
online goods and services weekly.
However, retailers must contend with numerous
challenges when delivering websites and
applications to mobile devices: They must ensure
optimal viewing on multiple devices, multiple
screen types, and different operating systems. It’s
nearly impossible for companies to overcome
these issues on their own since mobile sites and
apps are dependent on public Internet, which
is fraught with bottlenecks, latency, and
security issues.
India is dotted with patchy telecom networks and,
overall, a poor infrastructure. Limited network
connectivity leads to problems such as low use of
digital wallets and debit and credit cards.
08

Optimizing the
online shopper
experience is hard
in a fast-changing
and increasingly
fragmented
mobile world.
Despite these challenges, it’s critical to
deliver rich, dynamic experiences at
lightning-fast speeds. We’ve seen, however,
that meeting smartphone users’ high
expectations can be exceptionally
challenging. In fact, Akamai’s Consumer
Web Performance Expectations survey
found that mobile users have the least
satisfying online retail experience.
As revealed in Akamai’s Q1 2017 State of the
Internet − Connectivity Report, India and the
Philippines once again had the lowest
average connection speeds among surveyed
Asia-Pacific countries/regions, at 6.5 Mbps
and 5.5 Mbps respectively.
22 Statista, Internet users in selected countries in Asia-Pacific who have made a purchase via mobile phone in 4th quarter 2016
23 Statista, Online shopping channel usage among digital buyers in India from 2013 to 2015
India Online Retail Report 2018
Consider that Reliance Jio — an Akamai
partner — is working to create the most
extensive and future-proof network in India,
providing next generation digital services
over an end-to-end all-IP network. It has laid
more than 2.5 lakh kilometres of fibre-optic
cables, covering 18,000 cities and over one
lakh villages, with the aim of covering 100%
of the nation’s population by 2018. Its initial
end-to-end capacity is intended to enable it
to serve in excess of 100 million wireless
broadband and 20 million Fibre-to-Home
customers. Reliance Jio has also built nearly
half-a-million square feet of cloud data
centres and a multi-terabit capacity
international network. The infrastructure is
being built in partnership with some of the
world’s most technologically advanced
companies.
09
 India Online Retail Report 2018

Cybersecurity Finally, it’s essential to consider one of the more complex, deeply
entrenched issues impacting online retail in India. Proper cybersecurity

Leaves Many measures aren’t in line with India’s digital push, leaving many companies
vulnerable to cyberattacks. According to the Akamai State of the

Vulnerable Internet report, India was one of the top 5 source countries for DDoS
attacks in Q2 2017. It was also one of the top 10 source countries for web
application attacks worldwide and second for web application attacks in
the Asia-Pacific region, Q3 2017. The retail industry worldwide falls prey
to the largest bot traffic and credential abuse attempts. Retail
organizations on the Akamai platform saw about 1 billion credential
abuse attempts in November 2017 alone!

India ranked 23rd out of 165 nations in the 2017 Global

Cybersecurity Index, and ranked the fifth most vulnerable
country for cyberbreaches by Symantec’s Internet Security
Threat Report of 2017.

Cyberattack cases in India are usually
under-reported because people tend to rely on
software rather than cybersecurity agencies to
protect them from a breach. Moreover, India does
not legally require the reporting of an incident, nor
is there a legal obligation to let victims know that
their data has been compromised.
That said, we know India was the third most affected
country by the WannaCry ransomware attacks.
Moreover, the number of security incidents in India
has also been increasing gradually year-on-year.
According to the Indian Computer Emergency
Response Team (CERT-In), almost 11,000 networks
in India were victims of probe-scanning between
March 2016 and May 2017. Probing and scanning
are usually the initial steps used by a hacker to
monitor a system before the malware or
ransomware is installed on the network.
According to the Ministry of Electronics and
Information Technology, India witnessed over
27,000 cybersecurity threats in the first half of 2017.
These threats include ransomware attacks, website
intrusions or defacement, phishing attacks, and
data breaches.24
That's not all. Professional web scraping has
become a big business. Legitimate websites create
value in the form of content, which can be spoofed
on fake sites or used by competitors in competitive
pricing. The website www.80legs.com will index and
scrape websites of the attacker’s choosing, for a fee.

24 India Briefing, Massive Data Breaches and Cyber Threats in India, October 24, 2017

10
 India Online Retail Report 2018

JUNE 28 On June 28, 2017, the Petya global cyberattack disrupted cyberservices in
Russia, Ukraine, India, and Australia. India’s largest port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port

2017 Trust (JNPT), near Mumbai, had to be temporarily shut down as a result of the
attack; the virus affected computers running Microsoft software for the second
time after the WannaCry attack.

While all countries are vulnerable to cyberthreats, India is especially vulnerable as hackers take note of
India’s growing prosperity, weak cybersecurity infrastructure, and huge deficit of cybersecurity
professionals.

Lack of user awareness levels

due to varied user profiles

100% Endpoints/devices being used

100 for digital payments are not
secured (such as mobile phones,
80% desktops, etc.)
80
Concentrated attacks on users
60% through infected apps/malwares
60
Lack of adequate redressal
40%
Key Reasons 40 mechanism post incident
for
20
Security
Incidents 0
Source: KPMG, Digital payments – Analysing the cyber landscape, April 2017

11
 India Online Retail Report 2018

In recognition of this growing threat, the Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Center, CSK, established in
February 2017 and operated by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, focuses on desktop and mobile
device security. It’s a part of the government’s “Digital India” initiative.

Profitability remains elusive

While the festive season drives significant
purchases, India’s online retail firms are struggling
to achieve profitability due to advertising costs and
high discounts. Hyper-funded startups with
overpaid staff spend millions on advertising and
Bollywood endorsements, while offering deep
discounts.
Per capita income plays a major role in India’s
online retail growth. 85% of the Indian working
population, 300 million middle-class workers,
cannot spare even 1% for online retail. Instead,
most are saving their money. According to the
Ministry of Statistics, the savings rate in India is
31.3% of the GDP.

Major Buying Holidays

RAKHI FESTIVAL
[AUGUST]

DUSSEHRA
[OCTOBER]

DIWALI FESTIVAL
[OCTOBER or NOVEMBER]

CHRISTMAS
[DECEMBER]

12
WINNING
DIFFERENTIATION
STRATEGIES AND
BEST PRACTICES
 India Online Retail Report 2018

To capitalize on the promise of online retail in India, businesses must put in place a solid strategy that
addresses the uniqueness of the Indian market. According to Nishi Suri, COO, Cheil SWA — a digital and
marketing agency in India — companies are “moving beyond traditional digital solutions, looking for new
ideas, products, and innovations leveraging technology solutions to drive business growth.”

Varun Jha, head of Cheil online retail, adds, “India is ready to adopt the next wave of 100 million online
shoppers and hence it’s equally important to tap into new and existing users through a host of innovative
online retail solutions. This calls for businesses to look for new digital channels, create new products,
enhance the existing web offerings, and create new systems at scale.”

LESSONS
FROM
AMAZON

Amazon operates the biggest store in India with over 100

million products, of which nearly 2.4 million are available
for next-day delivery. As it seeks to dominate the Indian
market — online and increasingly offline — the retail giant
has invested in infrastructure and technology, and pushed
the envelope on logistics and innovations.
25

For example, it launched the

concept of guaranteed one-day
delivery within six months of its
India-based operations.

25 The Economic Times, Indian ecommerce turns into a two-horse race as smaller players face likely wipeout, August 25, 2017

14
 India Online Retail Report 2018

Satisfy a niche

To encourage brand loyalty, smart retailers can cater to a specific sub-culture to fill a niche, track and
respond to customer behaviors, and encourage and reward new behaviors (e.g., pay online rather than
CoD). At the same time, they are finding ways to satisfy increasingly sophisticated consumers who are
demanding access to a greater array of products.

Optimize for mobile

Another must-have is mobile optimization, as India is a mobile-first country. Mobile opens new revenue
streams and new ways of engaging customers, but comes with development and operational challenges
around performance.

While major online retail players in India have experimented with a mobile-only version, they must plan for
both. Conversion rates can be 2.4% lower on desktop when customers have to wait 2.8 seconds for the page
26
to load, and 7.1% lower for smartphones. A two-second delay in page load can bring your session’s length
to about half.

Consider that Flipkart, one of India’s largest online retail websites, and its business unit Myntra, drive the
27
bulk of site traffic from mobile apps. As of Jan 2018, 78.65% of the 481 million Internet users in India access
28
the Internet most often via a smartphone.

Retailers can deliver a mobile-ready website and applications by using advanced capabilities like pre-fetch,
asynchronous loading, adaptive image compressions, and cellular network optimizations to achieve
the following:

• Optimize native application delivery via API operations, API acceleration, API response, and media
support

• Optimize mobile website performance by simplifying development, accelerating content, and

reducing infrastructure investment

• Overcome challenges of cellular network-based agency through content acceleration

• Automate the image workflow, and intelligently deliver the best image to every end user

26 Akamai, The State of Online Retail Performance, Spring 2017

27 Livemint, Flipkart, Myntra users go mobile; desktop still key for online travel firms, September 4, 2015
28 The Economic Times, Number of Indian Internet users will reach 500 million by June 2018, IAMAI says, February 20, 2018

15
 India Online Retail Report 2018

Scale as needed

If done well, advertising and marketing efforts will successfully drive traffic to online channels — sites,
mobile apps, and APIs. Retailers need to invest in infrastructure capacity to sustain peak traffic and avoid
shutdowns.

This traffic may be domestic or global and can come from a myriad of devices, browsers, and network
conditions. It is important to ensure web properties are fast and responsive regardless of planned capacity
or physical presence of servers and the relative presence of buyers around the globe.

UCWeb’s web browser, UC Browser, is India’s most

popular with over 40% of the market share. In
January 2018, the browser claimed 130 million
monthly active users and became the sixth most
downloaded app in India. UC Browser has
distinguished itself from peers like Google by
emphasizing curated and personalized content for
individual users.29

Stay customer-focused

As they seek to continually improve the user experience and boost profitability, retailers should track the
following key metrics:

• Page resolution speed

• Checkout speed
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• Customer retention cost (CRC)
• Customer repeat rates (CRR)

At the same time, it’s a given to enable cash on delivery. That said, make more modern payment options
available to support the country’s migration to a cashless society.

Boost shopper engagement with rich online experiences

Retailers must meet the heightened expectation of millennial shoppers. That means they need to provide
descriptive product details and reviews, personalized item recommendations, and interactive media
formats such as high-definition images, videos, and multi-angle photo viewers. Moreover, they must deliver
all of this regardless of the device, browser, or network connectivity situations of each unique visitor.

29 CB Insights, Amazon Vs. Alibaba: How The Online Retail Giants Stack Up In The Fight To Go Global, March 2, 2018

16
 India Online Retail Report 2018

High-quality videos and images have been shown to increase customer engagement leading to higher
conversion, but both can be a large performance liability. According to a recent report by SOASTA (now
30
part of Akamai), 53% of mobile site visitors abandon a page that takes more than three seconds to load.

Retailers need to leverage Digital Performance Management tools that provide real-time actionable
insights into their user engagement metrics and how that impacts conversion rates. This also helps to find
and fix performance bottlenecks ranked by priority of impact on conversion.

Lead with security best practices

The online retail industry sees widespread web security attacks trying to take down sites using a distributed
denial of service (DDoS) attack that overwhelms the origin infrastructure with large amounts of malicious
HTTP requests. Other attacks use automated bot scripts to overtake inventory, scrape prices, or try to steal
credentials from online retail sites.

Knowing this, retailers need to embrace stringent cybersecurity. Consumer trust is already low, so online
retail companies need to take measures to ensure the security of their websites and applications, and
protect sensitive customer data associated with online transactions. It’s essential to safeguard data with
robust and well-maintained cybersecurity infrastructure. Otherwise, the promise of Digital India might be
eclipsed by hackers, ransomware, and data breaches.

Mainstream retailers in India such as FabFurnish and Pepperfry have been able to implement a strong
security strategy by leveraging web application firewall and DDoS protection solutions to protect their
business brand and ensure continuity.

30 Akamai, The State of Online Retail Performance, Spring 2017

17
 India online retail report 2018

TOP 10 While it’s impossible to say with certainty

what the future holds, here are our

PREDICTIONS predictions for the future of Indian online

retail based on today’s trends.

1 2
Online retail in India will keep Mobile commerce will
gaining momentum, fueled by outpace other forms of
a combination of online retail, since India is a
government and economic mobile-first country.
reforms, infrastructure
investments, a young and
growing consumer class, and
improved shipping and logistics.

3 4
International powerhouses
will establish a presence in
India to capitalize on the
burgeoning Indian online
retail market and the
popularity of cross-border
online retail.
Marketplaces and digital
platforms will dominate,
since they reduce merchant
risk by addressing
complexities, such as
facilitating transactions.

5 6
Companies that move beyond
deep discounting to truly
differentiate the customer
experience — using data
analytics and personalization
— will drive purchases and
loyalty that translate to
sustainable profitability.
The online retail ecosystem
will expand, creating new
jobs for Indian citizens in
support of supply chain
logistics. With this
expansion, online retail
companies will successfully
penetrate rural areas
(aka Tier II and Tier III cities
or the hinterland).

18
 India online retail report 2018

7 8
Online retail companies will Consumers will crave
invest in areas that drive digital content (think
measurable results, gaming, OTT, etc.),
including data-driven spurred by falling data
campaigns and branded prices, growing data
mobile applications. speeds, and huge uptake
of smartphones.

9 10
As the market evolves Emerging trends, such
and digital payment as enabling immersive
continues seeing an shopping via virtual
upsurge in adoption, reality and augmented
online retail companies reality, will gain traction
need to address as consumers become
cybersecurity measures. more comfortable with
Companies will be online shopping.
targets of sophisticated
attacks as these attacks
will be more profitable.
From individual fraudsters,
there could be a transition
to a group operating
on a regular/seasonal
basis. Marketplaces will
have to find mechanisms
to counter these threats. 31

Clearly, the Indian online retail market holds much potential. As with any strategic initiative, the key to
online retail success is about understanding the landscape and planning accordingly.

The winners will be those companies that approach the market with the right offerings, tailored to their
audience and delivered in a way that best serves their needs. While this touches many areas, online success
in India hinges upon addressing the needs of mobile shoppers in a scalable and secure way.

31 The Wire, The Economics and Future of E-commerce Fraud in India, April 17, 2017

19
 India online retail report 2018

It’s only a matter of time before online retail businesses in India feel the impact of emerging technologies
like Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and even the Internet of Things (IoT). Those companies
that put a solid foundation in place today to address current and future online retail trends in India will be
well positioned to succeed.

At Akamai, our customers include the top 20 global online retail sites and 95 of the top 100 U.S. online
retailers. Within India, we are proud to call these top online retail companies our customers:

Akamai’s “always on” web protection is delivered far from the data center at the edges of the Internet, so
content and transaction information is secure and protected from cyberattacks. Plus, whether you want to
improve the customer experience, grow your business, or prevent credential stuffing attacks, you can count
on Akamai to help manage bots simply and effectively.

If you would like to find out how Akamai can help your online retail business realize its vision, take
advantage of our no-risk trial: www.akamai.com/us/en/akamai-free-trials.jsp

20
 India online retail report 2018

As the world’s largest and most trusted cloud delivery platform, Akamai makes it easier
for its customers to provide the best and most secure digital experiences on any device,
anytime, anywhere. Akamai’s massively distributed platform is unparalleled in scale with
over 200,000 servers across 130 countries, giving customers superior performance and
threat protection. Akamai’s portfolio of web and mobile performance, cloud security,
enterprise access, and video delivery solutions are supported by exceptional customer
service and 24/7 monitoring. To learn why the top financial institutions, online retail
leaders, media and entertainment providers, and government organizations trust
Akamai, please visit www.akamai.com, blogs.akamai.com, or @Akamai on Twitter. You
can find our global contact information at www.akamai.com/locations. Published 06/18.