Online retail spending in India to reach $300B by 2030: BCG

Online retail spending in India is expected to grow nearly sixfold to $300 billion by 2030 with an expansion in the number of digitally-influenced shoppers and online shoppers, The Boston Consulting Group report said on Wednesday.

According to the report, the number of digitally-influenced shoppers has reached 280 million from 260 million last year. Online shoppers have grown to 230 million from 210 million in 2021.

BCG expects these numbers to increase by 2.5 times over the next decade, accompanied by nearly sixfold growth in online retail spending.

"We expect online shoppers to nearly triple over the next decade and online retail spending to grow nearly sixfold to reach $300 billion by 2030. COVID has further accelerated online shopper and spend growth by 3-4 Years.

"The pandemic pushed new-to-online shoppers and existing shoppers to increase their online purchasing, as physical shopping channels closed or became difficult to access," BCG India managing director and senior partner Nimisha Jain said in a statement.

Digitally influenced retail spending could surpass $1.5 trillion by 2030 accounting for about 80 percent of total retail spending, according to the BCG report.

With one of the world's lowest data and smartphone costs, growing internet penetration, and a proliferation of new online shopping channels, India is experiencing a dramatic rise in ecommerce and digitally influenced spending, the report said.

BCG claims that the findings were corroborated and substantiated by real-time transaction data gathered and analyzed on the purchase transactions of over 8 lakh consumers comprising about 2 lakh e-shoppers, along with multiple industry reports and expert interviews.

The survey was conducted with over 10,000 Indian consumers, across more than 40 metro to tier IV cities and 50 rural towns and villages, and was overseen by BCG's Center for Customer Insight, according to the report.

While mobiles, electronics and travel once dominated the online retail space, categories such as online food orders, FMCG, and beauty and personal care (BPC) items have seen sales grow by three to five times in recent years and expected to be the fastest-growing sectors too, along with fashion, the report said.