Mospi mulls ecommerce price index to monitor digital platform rates

This assumes significance as India's e-commerce market is projected to rise from Rs 12.2 trillion ($147.3 billion) in 2024 to Rs 24.1 trillion ($ 292.3 billion) by 2028

In a bid to track the prices of goods and services available on digital platforms, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (Mospi) is mulling introducing ‘ecommerce price index’, sources told Business Standard.  

The new index will be a statistical estimate of prices of goods and services bought for consumption by households via ecommerce firms. 

“It will be akin to the existing consumer price index (CPI)-based retail inflation and the wholesale price index (WPI)-based factory gate inflation. They tell us about the relative prices of goods bought by consumers and the industry, respectively. A representative basket of goods and services similar to these indices will be prepared for the index,” sources said.  

This assumes significance as India’s e-commerce market is projected to rise from ₹12.2 trillion ($147.3 billion) in 2024 to ₹24.1 trillion ($ 292.3 billion) by 2028, according to GlobalData’s e-Commerce Analytics. 

On the other hand, the number of internet connections in India stood at 895 million in June 2023, while the smartphone base is expected to cross 1.1 billion by 2025.  

For the purpose of creating this index, Mospi had asked ecommerce firms to share data on various goods and services sold by them in the past few months. It had also written to various departments and ministries in a bid to source data from them.  

“We had written to around 20 leading e-commerce platforms to share the data. Not much progress has been made. Hence, we are looking to engage them in the exercise through different means,” the sources said. 

Like the CPI, the new ‘e-commerce price index’ will have components such as food products, clothing and footwear,  housing, fuel & light, health, education, recreation and amusement, among other things, that are sold through e-commerce platforms.  

“Earlier, the idea was that data sourced from e-commerce platforms will be integrated with the newly-revised CPI series starting next year. However, much progress has not been made on this front due to lack of data availability,” the source said.  

National Statistics Office (NSO) is slated to launch the new CPI series in February 2026, along with new series for other macro indicators like gross domestic product (GDP) and index of industrial production (IIP).   

PC Mohanan, former acting chairman, National Statistical Commission (NSC), said that the creation of this new index will be useful to track prices in the e-commerce ecosystem, which is growing rapidly. 

He added that it remains to be seen whether the government has done prior studies about the share of ecommerce in total transactions. 

 

“Volatility in the prices of goods and services available in the digital marketplace is a pertinent issue due to different pricing strategies adopted by companies. Prices fluctuate due to surge pricing and festival sales, among others. Hence, these things should be looked into. Also, it needs to be defined for which sections of the population the index will be used for. This is like CPI, which is mainly for households, and WPI, for industry,” he added.    

 

Keeping track

 

*  Like the CPI, the new ‘ecommerce price index’ will have components such as food products, clothing and footwear, housing, health, recreation and amusement among other things

 

*  India’s ecom market is projected to rise from ₹12.2 trillion in 2024 to ₹24.1 trillion by 2028

 

*  NSO had written to around 20 leading ecommerce platforms to share the data