(with inputs from Nikhil Pahwa) The gross merchandising value (GMV) of e-commerce industry will witness a four times increase and reach $60 billion by 2020, according to a study titled 'Digital Retail 2020', conducted by Google and A.T. Kearney. The report claims that online retail will contribute about 25% to the total organised retail sales by then. Important: this report is based on research of just 3000 consumers across 20 cities, and thus should only be seen as indicative of trends. Google has a vested interest in projecting growth since ecommerce companies are key spenders for the company in India. Some Highlights from the study: - Increase in Online Shoppers: The total number of online shoppers is expected to grow 3.5 times to 175 million in 2020 from 50 million in 2015, and about one-third or 33% of customers will drive two-thirds of total shopping. The growth in the e-commerce space is not just from metropolitan cities but 60% of the interest in online shopping came from non-metro cities. - Top shoppers: Of the 175 million online shoppers in 2020, the top 60 million ("high value" customers) will contribute to 68% of the total spend and will contribute about $40 million to the total. - People willing to pay for premium services? Strangely, in a country where people switch sites for a minor discount, this report claims that "over 90% of the online buyers will be willing to pay for premium services. About 46% online buyers who participated in the study said they…
