Amazon has dislodged Snapdeal to become India’s second-largest online marketplace by shipments last month, industry estimates show. It also became the only major player to increase share from a year ago.
Market leader Flipkart’s share of shipments fell to 37 per cent in March from 43 per cent in the same month in 2015, and Snapdeal’s fell to 14 to 15 per cent from 19 per cent.
Amazon India’s unit market share surged to an estimated 21 to 24 per cent from 14 per cent. Although the data are snapshots of shipments a year apart, they definitely point to a drop in the volume market share for the India-based companies.
Other industry experts and analysts said the data is evidence of the larger unit market share trend in India’s ecommerce industry, although at least one recent estimate pegs Flipkart and Snapdeal ahead of Amazon India by sales.
“Amazon is very rapidly taking market share from companies like Snapdeal and other smaller players. If there is no new entry, it will be a two-horse race (between Flipkart and Amazon) by the end of the year,” Satish Meena, a senior analyst with Forrester Research said. “If Flipkart is not able to get its act together in the next 6 to 12 months, Amazon can overtake Flipkart also.”
Morgan Stanley estimates that India’s online retail market, including delivery of food and grocery, will be worth 119 billion US dollar by 2020 from 16 billion US dollar in 2015. Flipkart said in June 2015 that it was aiming to sell goods worth up to 12 billion US dollar in a year; Snapdeal had claimed it would do better than Flipkart. But Amazon did not disclose a sales target.
Online retailers shipped 8 to 9 lakh products a day in March this year, with Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal accounting for about three-fourths of the shipments, the estimates show. ShopClues and Paytm rank next.
