A Look At India's Ecommerce Industry : Everything You Need To Know [2014 Recap]

A lot happened in 2014 in Indian ecommerce industry. The rich got richer and well, the level 2 players got sucked in.
Here is a quick recap of 2014’s big Ecommerce stories!
– Flipkart raised a billion dollar. And $700mn more. The billion dollar isn’t definitely cool, eh?
Flipkart Billion Dollar Funding
– Amazon doubled up the amount. Tries to win PR race. Jeff Bezos came down to handover the cheque 🙂

Jeff Bezos of Amazon handing over $ 2 billion cheque to Amit Agarwal

– Snapdeal raised $627mn from Softbank, taking the total fund raised to more than a billion dollars.

– Jabong raised $27.5mn. There are rumors of Amazon acquiring Jabong (parent company, Rocket Internet Merged Jabong & 4 Other Fashion Brands Into Global Fashion Group; Estimated Valuation at $3.5B).
– Infibeam is planning IPO – no official announcements though.
– Koovs went public in AIM, a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange.
– Flipkart Acquired Myntra. The two founders came and spoke at length about the deal at UnPluggd, NextBigWhat’s flagship conference.

The #BillionDays And Sleepless Nights.

– Flipkart announced its billion day sale.
– Snapdeal *trolled* Flipkart and created buzz.
– Future group too trolled Flipkart. Biyani tells Bansals : You Can’t Take Nation For Granted Even For A Day’
– Customers weren’t too happy with Flipkart – founders issued an apology.
– 2014 GOSF was also a good deal.
There is a certain exuberance in India’s ecommerce industry, but we have a long way to go. Take a look at some of the interesting data points shared by Accel partners.

How is the E-Commerce industry in India shaping up ? Accel Partners India provides some key insights into how the industry is transforming itself from Accel Partners India

Ecommerce Logistics : Will It Deliver?

Logistic players are among the real gold diggers in India’s rising ecommerce industry. The payment revolution has started (will be covered in the next article in 2014 recap series).
– Delhivery Raised $35mn In Series C Round; Led By Multiples Alternate Asset Management.
– IndiaPost is delivering and collected over INR 280 crores (just from Cash On Delivery orders).
– Flipkart launched ‘Flipkart First’ And Amazon launched Release Day Delivery.

The Niche Ecommerce Businesses..Some Thrived, Some Didn’t

Very few niche ecommerce businesses in India managed to thrive. There was a clear drought of Series A and Series B rounds.
– Notable ones being UrbanLadder (raised $21mn) and PepperFry raised $15mn in 2014.
– Others like Yebhi *pivoted* to an aggregator/affiliate model.
– Greendust however claimed profitability in between the tug of GMV war.

The Online-Offline War

The battle between online and offline retailers heated up in 2014 though the smarter ones definitely are trying to fit in.

The $2.4 Bn Reliance Retail Is Launching E-commerce Business
Future group partnered with Amazon India, so has Grasim
Snapdeal partnered with Tata Value Homes; Hero Motocorp and also partnered with Fino PayTech To Launch Assisted eCommerce Centers In Rural India
Arvind group launched Creyate, custom clothing brand.
Big Bazaar launched Big Bazaar Direct Ecommerce Store

And yes, the ecommerce enablers are rising and raising funding – we will keep that for the next article in this series.

As far as consumers are concerend, the standard trend has been the rise of mobile commerce in India and tier II and III cities.

And you know what, India’s ecommerce industry can best be visualized with TV commercials companies have ran over the last few years!
To wrap up, the unsung heroes of India’s ecommerce growth story needs to be respected and loved for what they do – i.e. deliver products. Here is a video you should watch.