E-commerce industry makes $1.2m revenue in every 30 seconds

The maturity of social media and its reach across masses and classes makes it a suitable platform for online sales.

The global e-commerce industry generates over $1.2 million revenue in every 30 seconds with Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter contributing $5,483, $4,504 and $4,308 respectively, reveals a joint study conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) and Deloitte.

Social networks are contributing significantly to the growth of e-commerce business revenue.

The study, which was released on Wednesday, said “The maturity of social media and its reach across masses and classes makes it a suitable platform for online sales. Social media pages provide information regarding new products in the market, user reviews and ratings of the product, recommendations, and information technology (IT) products.

Social media also helps e-tailers to build brand awareness by responding to customer queries. Seasonal sales and offers are displayed in social networks to reach maximum number of people. E-tailers have even started to motivate customers with reward points to provide feedback on the product on social networks, said D. S. Rawat, Secretary General, Assocham.

Prospective customers also interact with users of the product or service on social networks before making purchase decision.

According to analysts, product reviews and ratings, as well as product recommendations, were the most popular social commerce features integrated into leading e-commerce sites as of August 2013. Increasingly, social networks have direct links to e-commerce sites, which provide complete product description, availability status, pricing and delivery information, and access to product reviews and ratings, all of which help prospective buyers to make a purchase.

The social media provides a platform for e-tailers to engage with customers for: advertisement, building brand awareness, developing a community of trusted user, spreading word-of-mouth and customer feedback, the study pointed out.

Payment gateways help the e-tailers to receive money instantly rather than waiting for the CoD (cash on delivery) payments, thus reducing chances of theft and fraud. The retailers are slowly moving towards payment gateways for improving security and dealing with other complexities, which arise with financial transactions. The banks and the e-tailers are offering different offers such as cashback and easy monthly instalment (EMI) to encourage customers for card-based payments. Start_ups such as Paytm and FreeCharge are providing mobile wallets while almost every commercial bank is providing the option to pay online via credit or debit card.

The popular EMI option which can be availed by credit card users with online payment is luring customer to pay online upfront for high-value items. The availability of e-commerce applications on various mobility devices is helping to drive sales and revenue. E-tailers such as Flipkart, Amazon and Jabong now get 50 per cent of their revenues from consumers shopping on their mobile phones. Predictive analytics is helping e-tailers to provide better solutions in real-time enabling compelling user experience even on mobile screens, the study observed.