Most Indian Internet users buy airline tickets online and also pay their utility bills online. However, when it comes to buying of other products online, most people are worried about online fraud. In many Western countries, Internet shopping became more popular because of increased disposable income, busy lifestyles, unpredictable working hours and because the fact that the responsibility of online fraud is taken by credit card companies, unlike in India, where the customers alone are responsible.
But, most of the metro cities in India are now on the similar lines, as more and more retailers are now looking to follow suit as in Western countries.
eBay.in, an online action site, with 2.5 million registered users in nearly 2500 locations in India, views that online shopping in India is about to take off. But the product purchasing online is still a fairly long way to go. Having 1.1 billion population in India, the use of computers and the Internet is still low, despite the country being a major player in global information technology and outsourcing.
Currently only 8% of Indian households have access to a personal computer. Of India’s estimated 60 million Internet users, about six million shop online, with e-commerce market thought to be worth about Rs 100 billion ($2.2 billion) and is expanding at about 30 per cent a year. An exponential growth in computer use and Internet penetration can be expected in the years to come, as the government is working to extend broadband access into 250,000 out of India’s more than 600,000 villages.
Source: Economic times