According to a report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the shift toward online commerce was accelerated by three to four years during the last two years of the pandemic.
BCG says they studied over 800,000 online transactions made by 10,000-plus consumers from across 40 metros and tier- 4 cities, 50 rural towns and villages, besides conducting expert interviews and studying industry reports to arrive at the findings.
The number of digitally-influenced shoppers in 2021 has grown from 260 million to 280 million and online shoppers have grown from 210 million to 230 million.
Nimisha Jain, managing director and senior partner BCG India, said, “The pandemic pushed new-to-online shoppers as well as existing shoppers to increase their online purchasing, as physical shopping channels closed or became difficult to access.”
India is set to become the second-largest digital economy by the number of internet users due to:
- lower smartphone and data-pack costs
- growing internet penetration
- an increase in online shopping platforms
