'Travel, fashion, IT/mobiles most preferred e-comm segments'

As many as 98 per cent of Indian consumers who have access to the internet have made a purchase online, with travel, fashion and IT and mobile being the highest performing categories, a recent study revealed.

According to global measurement company Nielsen, global online grocery purchasing is up 15 per cent in the last two years, leading to an estimated USD 70 billion additional sales in online FMCG.

"Closer home, in India, with growing consumer trust and confidence within the online buying ecosystem, e-commerce channel has evolved significantly and in the past two years has grown its share by as much as three times, within total FMCG retail sales," the report said.

The 2018 Nielsen Connected Commerce Report, which looks at consumers online purchasing habits, reported that 98 per cent of Indian consumers who have access to the internet have made a purchase online.

"Stalwart e-commerce categories travel, fashion, IT and mobile continue to account for the largest proportion of online transactions at 69 per cent, 66 per cent and 63 per cent, respectively," it said.

Meanwhile, the categories posting the most significant growth in e-commerce channel include packaged grocery, where 40 per cent of online consumers said they made a purchase, fresh groceries and baby and children products, the report said.

This has led to online purchase of a broader range of categories, with a particularly interesting upswing seen in fresh and packaged groceries, the report said.

Commenting on the report, "travel, fashion and IT/ mobile products are typical categories for first-time online shoppers, but as their familiarisation, comfort and trust levels increase, their category repertoire expands into areas like beauty, personal care and baby products, and then moves to packaged and fresh grocery categories," Nielsen South Asia executive director retail measurement services Sameer Shukla said.

At the same time, he said, with the large scale data democratisation, millions of Indians are being connected and there remains a lag between getting connected and transacting.

"Therefore, while the numbers have grown in absolute, the percentage of transacting Indians has declined marginally in 2018. This also means that there is a huge untapped potential for online shopping across categories in the coming years," Shukla added.

The report reveals that consumers are more open to purchase packaged and fresh groceries online when they are offered certain purchasing options and quality assurances.

About 60 per cent of consumers pointed towards the need to offer and improve hassle free refund, replacement experience as well as free cost delivery - if offered, would boost their confidence to buy online with higher frequency.