What are the factors driving the growth of the Online Grocery Market In India?

Posted by Andrew Thomas on November 4th, 2019

Shopping for food and grocery products has witnessed a revolution in Indian retail market with the conspicuous changes in the consumer behaviour driven by the easy availability of disposable income, changing lifestyles and cost-effective and efficient online and mobile technologies. Over the last few years the online grocery market has seen exceptional changes. E-commerce retailers are constantly looking for new concepts to make life easier for time-pressed consumers. One such booming introduction launched in India was that of the online grocery shopping that has changed the Indians shop for vegetables.

This is an exciting change because India is a fast-growing market with limitless potential and online grocery market in India can capture a massive chunk of this action. The consumers can place an order at any time during the day, be it at four in the morning or ten at night, from the comfort of their couch, without having to navigate through crowded alleys in a supermarket or stand in cashier queues. The comfort and the convenience of online payments, the huge variety of products to choose from and the year-around offers and discounts makes buying grocery online both efficient and convenient for the consumers. It helps the consumers the hassle of the commute and save both time and money.

In the case of online grocery shopping, it is easier for consumers to check the nutritional value of the products and help them make informed purchases. Also, there are recommendations by the sites which exposes the consumers to various brands or suggest products that can be bought together to get certain discounts, which helps the consumers save money.

Since the purchase history is always available in the order history, it helps consumers keep a track of their monthly budget. It might also enable the customers to repurchase the same list of products saving the browsing time and the effort to look for the same products all over again.

When consumers shop for groceries online, they can choose to avail the benefits of various sales and online-only discounts. Most of the time, these online discounts provided by sellers are much more than those given offline. There are also various cashback offers and offers on online payments and tie-ups with various branches which helps the consumers save quite a few bucks when shopping online.

Though online grocery shopping is a comparatively new concept in the Indian market, it has been gaining tremendous popularity owing to the rise in the e-commerce industry, the growing urbanisation, the changing lifestyle of the consumers and the tech-savvy younger generation who prefer to buy almost everything online, including grocery products.

If the market prospects are considered, it is noticed that online grocery shopping has presently become a high value-added service in India due to the expansion of the middle-class population. Indians spent almost half of their income on grocery shopping which has helped huge players in the e-grocery industry to carve a niche for themselves in the Indian market. Technological investments, newer strategies like same-day delivery and increasing awareness of the consumers will further aid the growth of the online grocery market in India.