Online Marketing in India? and it's set to grow by 300%?

A few years ago if someone told you that online marketing in India was the next big thing to happen to the economy, you'd probably laugh your head off and ask him/her to get a reality check. Well, surprisingly, it actually is.

According to research by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, things are looking up for online business this year.

Rs. 570 crores worth of E-commerce conducted online in India in 2004-2005, to grow to Rs 2300 crores by 2006-2007, an estimated 300%+ growth.

That's a good, healthy amount to hear; while it's nowhere near the amount of business conducted in other developed nations, it means we're getting there. Take a look at the research reports available at the research section on the IAMAI site; they cover entertainment, e-commerce, security and even cyber-cafe usage statistics in India, completely free of charge. Their sample size isn't huge at 3099 respondents for the "The Power Shopper: IOAI Ecommerce Report 2005" but I guess its a good enough indication for the average online marketer's general knowledge.

What also caught my eye was the demographics! Take a look at the image here:

1) 85% of Online Shoppers are Male; note that even a 15% female audience represents a 15 million strong market audience by 2007-2008 (IOAI Estimate: 100 million Internet users by 2007-08).
2) 37% of online shoppers are 'Unmarried' and 47% are 'Married with the kids'. That's something new as well - it used to be the "unmarried category" on top earlier.

In another recent study of online shopping habits in India and across the globe by AC Nielsen I came across more good things being said about the Indian online shopper.

"Online shopping in India is poised for greater acceleration as more manufacturers and providers integrate the internet into their sales model. As PC and internet penetration grows, the key to increasing online purchases will remain in the hands of marketers - instituting online mechanisms for sales and service and incentivizing consumers to use them by passing on the benefits of lower transaction costs to them" says NS Muthukumaran, Director at ACNielsen ORG-MARG and head of Internet Research at ACNielsen in India.

While the report seems to be focused on the retail consumer, I'm sure B2B marketers will find a bunch of interesting statistics there too. I did.

For people like me who've been working on the web and creating, managing and measuring Online Marketing campaigns for a living, I guess this can only be a good thing. Well I hope anyway - its a very nascent area of business in India, and not only is there a dearth of people with the know-how, there's also a dearth of companies who are willing to actually pay well for someone with experience managing both online and offline marketing activities.