Executive Summary

This is the second report in our India Rising series focusing on the Indian startup ecosystem. We identify the following four retailers as the main disruptors in Indian e-commerce: Flipkart, Snapdeal, Quikr, and Bigbasket. There are five primary factors that have shaped the Indian e-commerce sector:

• A paucity of modern retail stores has boosted demand for products and brands sold online.
• Strongly price-competitive e-commerce marketplaces are well positioned to attract shoppers with limited incomes, who constitute a large part of India’s consumer population.
• Offering cash on delivery (COD) as a payment option allows more Indian consumers to buy online.
• India has one of the world’s largest Internet user bases, and Indian consumers’ disposable incomes are increasing.
• Government restrictions on foreign investment in India’s retail sector and Amazon’s and Alibaba’s relatively late entries in the country have helped domestic startups gain a strong foothold.