The document discusses the rapid transformation of the retail sector due to the growth of e-commerce, highlighting factors such as increased smartphone users, busy lifestyles, and higher disposable incomes driving this shift. It analyzes major players like Amazon and Flipkart, emphasizing the importance of secure and user-friendly online shopping platforms. As e-commerce continues to evolve, traditional retailers face stiff competition and must adapt by enhancing their online presence while recognizing emerging opportunities in specific retail sectors.

1. THE E-COMMERCE
IMPERATIVE ONLINE VERSION
By: VARUN LUTHRA

2. INTRODUCTION
 Change is a constant, but technology is what dictates the pace of
those changes.
 This holds true for commercial real estate as much as anything else
and there is no other property type where change is currently
playing out so quickly as in the retail arena.
 The retail marketplace will change more over the next five years
than it has over the past twenty.
 These shifts are being entirely driven by the accelerated
encroachment of e-commerce.

3. THE RISE OF E-COMMERCE
 Over the past few years, an average of half a billion new smartphone users
annually have come online worldwide.
 Today almost every big company has adopted these technologies to increases
sales, to make branding all over the globe.
 Online shopping in India saw a 128% growth in interest from consumers in 2012
as compared to the previous year, according to a new report. The growth was
only 40% between 2010 and 2011, said the report compiled by Google and TNS
Australia.
 In the US, as the economy began to emerge from the recession in 2010, the
trend became clear. While overall retail sales increased by about 5.6% in 2010,
online sales growth increased by 15.3%.

4. ANNUAL RETAIL
SALES GROWTH

5. REASONS BEHIND THE GROWTH OF E –
COMMERCE
 Busy Lifestyle: The lifestyle of people is so busy that they are unable to go to
the crowded markets every time for shopping.
 High Disposable Income: With growing job opportunities the income
sources have also increased.
 Awareness of Products: People are much more aware nowadays regarding
the products available in the markets. Because of this reason they feel
confident while shopping online.

6.  Rising Computer Educational Level: Due to the efforts of Government and
Private Educational Institutions in India, computer education is getting new
horizons.
 Increased Usage of Internet: With more than 100 million Internet users, the
country is beginning to achieve a critical mass of users who are familiar with
web services. In addition, over the past few years, relatively sophisticated
online travel agents (“OTAs”), such as MakeMyTrip – which started turning
these initial Web users into Web consumers – have dominated Indian e-commerce.

7. ESSENTIALS FOR MAKING ONLINE
SHOPPING EFFECTIVE
 It must be Secure: Every customer wants to make safe and secure
transactions while purchasing online. If the website is secure, customers will
tend to purchase more from it.
 Appealing and Informative Design of Website: The website which has
designed for online shopping purpose must be designed in such a way that
it will attract more and more customers towards it by the offers, patterns,
quick services etc.
 Deliver High and Quick Quality Services: One of an important feature to
make your online shopping websites better than others is to deliver high
and quick quality services.

8. AMAZON: THE REAL CATEGORY KILLER
 While smaller retail chains and independents have long referred to the
mega-stores of Walmart, Target and countless other hypermart operators as
category killers, the category killer of the new MIllenia is clearly Amazon.
 Half direct retail, half internet clearinghouse for thousands of independent
vendors that sell their goods through their system, Amazon is the e-commerce
leader.
 Their total sales volume over the past year is just under $64 billion, with Q2
sales expected to possibly reach as high as $16.2 billion.

9. It’s hard to argue with
success and you can
measure Amazon’s success
by the growing size of its
real estate footprint.

10. AMAZON’S $2 BILLION INDIA-SPECIFIC
INVESTMENT A DAY AFTER FLIPKART’S FUNDING
 Merely a day after India’s largest e-commerce marketplace, Flipkart made
the official announcement that it has raised US $1 billion, rival and e-commerce
behemoth Amazon has gone one up by announcing a US $2
billion India-specific fund.
 Flipkart’s fund raise is the biggest till date for an Indian company, led by its
existing investors, Tiger Global and Naspers and including Accel Partners,
DST Global, ICONIQ Capital, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and
Sofina.

11. INFERENCES

13. THE TOP 5 TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR
EVALUATIN E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS
 Scalability: Will the site perform efficiently through traffic peaks and valleys?
Scalability may be one of the most overused terms in IT marketing. Software
makers would have you believe that every application ever written was
destined to be scalable from inception.
 The Product Catalog: Will today’s catalogue schema meet tomorrow’s
demands? Your product catalogue is the online repository for every item
you sell. It has to effectively promote the items you most want to push, and
simultaneously help your customers find the items they are looking for.

14.  Business User Control: Will my application directly empower my
merchandisers, marketing managers, and other business owners? Many IT
managers long for a world where there are no demanding business users.
They long for the end of business requests that seemingly come from left
field, or arrive urgently at the last minute.
 Reporting and Analytics: Do I have all the features I need to understand my
online business? Your e-commerce Website stores a treasure trove of
information about your customers, their behaviour, and their preferences.
 Integration: How easily can the application integrate with my other
systems? The e-commerce Website, once a standalone silo, is now a highly
integrated application that touches many other systems and processes.

15. CONCLUSION / THE ROAD AHEAD
 The research reveals that most of the people who are engaged in making the
decision of purchasing, are in the age group of 21-30 years.
 While making the website for online shopping it must be designed in a very
planned and strategic way.
 Retail routinely goes through seismic shifts; the rise of the suburban shopping
mall; the ebb and flow of the department store sector; the emergence of the
category killers; the ascent (and now the shrinking) of the big boxes.
 E-commerce is nothing new, but its growth has finally reached a tipping point
and we are in the midst of one of those seismic shifts. As challenging as this may
seem, those retailers who see this as an opportunity will be the ones that end up
on top.

16.  Meanwhile, owners of industrial properties also need to understand the nature
of the beast if they want to capitalize on the current wave of demand from
mega-distribution users.
 Shopping centre vacancies will continue to fall at a modest rate as overall
retailer growth plans are up, however, there has been a massive shift in terms of
who is expanding.
 The rise of e-commerce has meant stiff competition for mid-priced hard goods
retailers. Most are focusing their immediate efforts on building their e-commerce
platforms and are streamlining their bricks and mortar presence.
 Concepts that don’t, or only minimally compete, with e-commerce is where we
are seeing some of the strongest bricks and mortar growth. Restaurants lead the
way, grocery stores are hot (new smaller concepts are expanding though many
traditional players are contracting) and service related retailers are the
strongest sectors.

17. THANK YOU