E-commerce has been growing at a phenomenal rate in India for the last couple of years. According to a recent report by Indian E-Commerce Industry Analysis, the Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow to $111.40 billion by 2025 from $46.2 billion in 2020. By 2030, it is expected to reach $350 billion.
This is a 7x growth by the end of this decade, which will be fuelled by the new customer base which is and will emerge in deeper India, also known as “Bharat”.
As of 2020, there are more than 650 million internet and smartphone users and the recent sale of the year reports by e-commerce giants and witnessed a similar trend — users from Tier II towns and beyond shopping for the very first time.
How social commerce is making a difference for 'Bharat'
is already a leader in “Bharat” and one of the leading companies to drive commerce in Tier II and beyond via its social-commerce platform. In fact, more than 84 percent of GlowRoad's user base is from Tier II, Tier III and below.
Users in “Bharat”, who are typically first-time internet and smartphone users are also potential first-time e-commerce users, provided they get products in their spending capacity. That being said, the concept of e-commerce and doing a transaction by themselves is still alien to them, and most of them need “assisted buying” (via a reseller or an influencer). This is where GlowRoad thrives using its 2 million strong reseller base which generates commerce for first-time buyers in Tier II and beyond.
"At GlowRoad, we've been working on many features and tools to make commerce “happen” for a user in a small town in India. We have innovated and launched various features and tools such as One Click Shop, Group Buying, GlowRoad TV, Brand Stores to facilitate commerce for first-time buyers via GlowRoad resellers," says Shekhar Sahu, Co-founder, GlowRoad.
According to him, the biggest challenge for an e-commerce brand or platform today is how to quickly acquire users in Tier II, III and convert them to loyal/repeat buyers in their platform.
"Social commerce complements e-commerce and will be the biggest enabler for e-commerce growth in India. If an e-commerce platform wants to become a leader in this growth story, they have to encourage social commerce, and platforms like GlowRoad are the most cost-effective way of acquiring a loyal user base in Tier II and beyond with higher Lifetime value (LTV),”adds Kunal Sinha, Co-founder and CEO, GlowRoad.
Why GlowRoad is the go-to partner for an e-commerce platform:
GlowRoad can help various e-commerce platforms to grow in Tier II and beyond using its state-of-the-art features and solutions. GlowRoad is already integrated with some of the top e-commerce companies in the world.
1. Reselling model for regular social commerce
Reselling not only gives more reach for products (because a reseller is pushing these products to end buyers) but also provides an earning opportunity for resellers and influencers. For an e-commerce platform like Flipkart, Myntra or Amazon, the reseller-led social commerce feature powered by GlowRoad can help showcase their products to a completely new set of potential customers via resellers.
2. Group buying for grocery, health and wellness businesses
Resellers can easily drive grocery, cosmetics or health and wellness related products for an e-commerce platform in Tier II and beyond. They can become leaders in their community and locality and drive grocery sales for their customers. They can also work as a “virtual small warehouse” and even enable 10-minute delivery for their customers, just like the current 10-minute grocery delivery craze in Tier I cities.
3. GlowRoad TV and video-commerce APIs for video-driven businesses
Users from all over India are spending a lot of time watching videos on their smartphones. "We believe 2022 onwards is the time to introduce this large audience to some utility and commerce experience while they’re watching videos," says Shekhar. GlowRoad and GlowRoad TV is the only deep-tech and API enabled social commerce platform that can seamlessly enable video-commerce and live commerce for an existing e-commerce platform. "With GlowRoad TV, we have seen that more than 95 percent of videos are commerce-driven because it is coming from Tier II and beyond," he adds.
4. GlowRoad's video-commerce APIs for live commerce-driven businesses
GlowRoad has trained many of its power resellers to go live and do commerce on various live platforms such as Instagram Live, Facebook Live, and YouTube Live. GlowRoad enables live commerce for an existing e-commerce partner easily and makes them the first mover in this space.
5. GlowRoad's social commerce platform for Bharat D2Cs
Unlike traditional e-commerce, social commerce platforms thrive on unstructured, unbranded products. Moreover, homepreneurs and business owners in small towns don't have access to platforms where they can easily list their products, without being encumbered by strict selling prices, commissions, and extended timelines. GlowRoad allows them to go online and showcase their products to thousands of global users from Day 1. The platform takes care of shipping and allows resellers to share videos of the products to upload to their shop.
Partnering with GlowRoad has multifold benefits for e-commerce companies. They now easily acquire thousands of new sellers who manufacture products catering to Tier II consumers.
This is also a great opportunity to tap into a large chunk of the women audience in small towns and villages, where more than 60 percent of social commerce users are women.
"Over time, GlowRoad has emerged as a go-to earning platform for women all over India, where they can earn from home easily. It empowers women entrepreneurship from the grassroots level for an e-commerce platform, bringing them new women buyers and sellers," says Shekhar.
The way forward for e-commerce
The biggest challenge and race for all e-commerce platforms in 2022 will be to get the biggest pie of this new 650 million user base which has emerged in “Bharat” - The e-commerce platform that wins this race will become the leader in e-commerce in India. “And in this race, GlowRoad has become a critical partner to fast-track an e-commerce platform’s growth in smaller towns and villages,” Shekhar concludes.