Online retail revenues expected to grow to 60 billion dollars in 2017

According to a recent report by Retailers Association of India (RAI) and digital marketing agency ValueFirst, online retail is expected to drive the growth in e-commerce companies as well as get footfalls to the physical stores. The revenue generated from online retail is projected to grow to $60 billion in 2017. It is estimated that by 2020 the revenue generated through online retail is forecast to grow to 70 billion dollars.

In three years this size of modern retail in India is estimated to double from Rs 87,100 crore to Rs 1.71 lakh crore which is driven by omni channel retail.

The report further says that cross channel presence from offline to online be a reason why retailers need to be on both platforms. Today shopper behavior is driven by technology and thus online presence for retailer has become extremely important to attract multiple user personas. 82 per cent of smartphone users convey they consult their phones on purchases they're about to make in a store, the report further added.

In terms of marketing, the importance of email marketing seems to have grown for retailers as 85 percent retailers agreed that email gave them better consumer engagement and is important for them. While 94 per cent retailers embraced mobile as a part of their marketing strategy.

Talking about the social media marketing, the report confirmed that Facebook is the most popular one among retailers. It further said majorly for online retail operators that 61 per cent marketers have shown an accumulated interest in social media promotions.