Online shoppers to surge from 25 mn to 40 mn by 2016

India's online shoppers are set to rise from just about 25 million currently to about 40 million by 2016 on the back of rising usage of mobile internet, according to a study.
Despite the lowest mobile web users of just 12 per cent in the world, India's online shoppers will rise from just about 25 million currently to about 40 million by 2016 on the back of rising usage of mobile internet, eTailing India study said here.
In India, mobile web users are amongst the lowest in the world, and account for just about 12 per cent as opposed to 47 per cent for Israel and Japan, 43 per cent for the US, 38 percent for China and UK, and more than 18 per cent for Mexico and Germany, it said.

"The mobile revolution will primarily be led by the fact that in terms of population demographics, India has a unique position as close to 90 per cent of our online population is young and in between the age brackets of 25-44 years.
Also, while India's population is 3 times that of the US, its ecommerce sales at USD 13 billion are just over 5 per cent of that of the US. This shows the immense potential of eCommerce in India," eTailing India Founder Ashish Jhalani said.
ECommerce industry is skewed in favour of smaller cities and towns with about 40 per cent sales coming from tier-I cities with tier-II and III accounting for the larger share of 60 per cent.

In terms of product categories, the industry is dominated by electronics, apparels and books, which together account for close to 80 per cent of the total sales, followed by beauty and personal care products at 10 per cent, home furnishings at 6 per cent, followed by other smaller categories.