Online Shopping Scenario in Gujarat

Even as the state ranks at 8th position on Flipkart's e-commerce platform, users in Gujarat are witnessing a growing penetration of mobile based transactions. In Ahmedabad alone, more than 25 per cent of the total visitors to Flipkart.com come through mobile, a segment which is growing by over 150 per cent. (Gujarat ranks 8'th on e-commerce plateform, 2014)

According to Saran Chatterjee, VP - Product Management at Flipkart India Pvt Ltd, impediments such as low bandwidth penetration and low Internet penetration across computing devices and mobile phones are some of the reasons for Gujarat being ranked at eighth position. (Gujarat ranks 8'th on e-commerce plateform, 2014)

""Mobile commerce is going to be the next big thing in online shopping. On Flipkart.com, India's largest e-commerce marketplace, Gujarat ranks amongst the top 10 states while Ahmedabad ranks amongst the top 15 cities in terms of sales generated through the mobile channel. In Ahmedabad, more than 25% of the total visitors to Flipkart.com come through mobile,"" said Chatterjee. (Gujarat ranks 8'th on e-commerce plateform, 2014)

The top product categories among the mobile shoppers in Ahmedabad are mobiles, footwear, tablets and tablet accessories. Apart from Ahmedabad, the other Gujarat cities out of the total 150 witnessing sales for Flipkart.com include Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Jamnagar, among others. Overall, for Flipkart, more than 20 per cent of online orders come from mobile. Chatterjee said that it is the ease and convenience of being able to shop on the go without needing access to a PC is driving the popularity of m-commerce. (Gujarat ranks 8'th on e-commerce plateform, 2014)

""Increasing smartphone penetration and lower costs of devices has further contributed to this trend. A recent report by Boston Consulting Group noted that at present around 45 per cent of online consumers in India use only their mobile devices to access the Internet. This is expected to increase to 60% over the next three years,"" Moreover, mobile traffic is growing at two times the rate of desktops. A lot of the mobile customers for Flipkart are also coming from non-metros and tier II cities. The company currently has six warehouses in India including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad. However, Flipkart is looking to add a greater number of warehouses in other parts of the country. (Gujarat ranks 8'th on e-commerce plateform, 2014)

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