India to witness online shopping touch $34 billion by ‘15

Online shopping in India which is at a nascent stage

is poised to witness significant growth in the next few years. The industry is likely to touch 34.2 billion dollars (Rs 18,758 crores) by 2015. According to Homeshop18 data, in India around 27 million people are active mobile internet users. Currently 4 per cent are buying products, through mobiles and in the next four years it is expected to go up to 20 per cent.

Meanwhile, to boost online shopping, an industry wide initiative was carried out in the country on December 12. Under it, Google India partnered with a host of e-commerce players including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Homeshop18, Indiatimes Shopping and makemytrip to bring its own version of ‘Cyber Monday’ -- a term which was created to woo people to shop online.

As a part of this event, Internet users could log on and get deals for 24 hours on that day from over 50 partners across e-commerce, local and classified, online travel sites and BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) industries.