Indian shoppers spent more than USD 8.7 billion on international ecommerce sites in 2016, a 6.7% increase compared with 2015. That amount is still less than the USD 31 billion domestic ecommerce market, but it shows that Indian shoppers are regularly turning to overseas sites for certain shopping needs.
The report, which was based on a survey of 800 Indian ecommerce shoppers, found that Indian shoppers looked to overseas ecommerce sites to find international brands and products that aren’t available on domestic sites. These shoppers also tend to favor sites that offer free shipping and can take transactions in Indian rupees.
US ecommerce sites received nearly half of the overseas ecommerce sales coming from India in 2016, with USD 3.9 billion in purchases from Indian shoppers. Chinese and UK ecommerce platforms saw USD 991 million and USD 850 million in sales, respectively. Additionally, 14% of the survey’s respondents said they shop on US ecommerce sites, compared with only 6% who shop on UK sites, and 5% on Chinese ones.
More than 50% of the respondents said they have abandoned overseas ecommerce purchases during the checkout process, due to expensive customs duties, long delivery times, and the high cost of returns.
Although some sites, including Amazon, offer global shipping, Indian customers still have to pay an import fee and duties on those purchases. Indian ecommerce sites could potentially increase their sales by providing some of the same brands and products overseas e-tailers do without those import costs.
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