Top 10 e-commerce sites in the world based on visitors.
Top 10 popular ecommerce sites Indians like to shop at.
Ecommerce has become a way of life in India. Once used only by the tech savvy to buy things not available in the neighbourhood mall, it has now become ubiquitous, thanks to a surge in internet use, and some heavy duty advertizing by ecommerce bigwigs.
Indians have their quirks and specific needs when it comes to online shopping. Globally leading shopping sites aren’t necessarily the ones most popular within the country. Also, while Amazon India is top of the list in the shopping category, overall, it ranks sixth, behind Google (both global and India), Facebook, YouTube, and Yahoo.
Some, like Alibaba and Amazon only ship to the country, while others, like Amazon’s India unit, Flipkart, and Snapdeal have taken a global model and gone as native as possible.
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular shopping sites here, and compare their domestic rankings to global ones.
The list is indicative rather than exhaustive, intended to show which types of ecommerce sites tug at Indian hearts.
Feel free to suggest others that you think are worth a mention.
Top of the lot is Amazon India, beating all other ecommerce websites, as per SimilarWeb. Amazon launched its India website in 2013, six years after Flipkart. A mean fight ensued, complete with mega ad spending, localization, and billion dollar checks on both ends. Amazon, however, seems to be winning the desktop war.
SimilarWeb rank in India: #6, with 90.30 million desktop visits in December.
The king of Indian ecommerce holds second place in website popularity. Flipkart insists that is because it is pushing more towards app transactions, where the company beats Amazon. Many industry analysts, however, think while mobile commerce is the way to the future, it is too early to discount website business. Flipkart, valued at around US$15 billion, leads the ecommerce pack in the country, but is under pressure to maintain that lead as Amazon nips in.
SimilarWeb rank in India: #7, with 76.90 million desktop visits in December
The self professed online Walmart of India, Softbank-backed Snapdeal takes the third spot. Founder and CEO Kunal Bahl has repeatedly said he is building the company modelled after Alibaba, calling Snapdeal a “technology platform that brings sellers and buyers together,” rather than an ecommerce site. Now, Indian laws make it mandatory for most ecommerce sites to operate as marketplaces, so that doesn’t make much of a difference. Bahl, however, has an uphill task at hand, matching Amazon India and Flipkart’s mega budgets and massive leads.
SimilarWeb rank in India: #19, with 44.40 million desktop visits in December
Surprised? Don’t be. Alibaba does not have an Indian website, and one does not see ads asking Indians to buy on Alibaba, but customers here have long discovered the benefits of getting electronics and bulk purchases done on this online megastore. Shipping via Aliexpress is gaining popularity as well.
SimilarWeb rank in India: [India ranks and visit numbers not available.]
Once talked of in the same breath as Amazon, Ebay has quietly slipped in rung across the world, including in India. Travails at home have hit Ebay’s performance in India, but the company now manages to cling to the fifth spot. That’s ahead of Jabong, though.
SimilarWeb rank in India: #31, with 20.40 million desktop visits in December
The other troubled ecommerce player in the country, online clothes store Jabong, ranks below Ebay in the popularity charts. Once caught up in management changes and other problems, Jabong now seems to have found its balance. It is, however, still lagging behind rival Myntra in the sector. Myntra does not have a transactional website, so it’s not featured on this list.
SimilarWeb rank in India: #34, with 68.10 million desktop and mobile visits in December
India’s latest entrant to the unicorn club, Shopclues patiently worked its way up to the top by focussing on daily household needs while Flipkart and Amazon were busy selling mobile phones and other electronics. Steadfastly profit-oriented, Shopclues is expected to become profitable with IPO in 2017.
That is even before Flipkart, India’s largest ecommerce player, is eyeing going public.
SimilarWeb rank in India: #40, with 18.50 million desktop visits in December
Listing website OLX is a rival to Quikr, and India’s answer to the popular Craigslist. OLX India came online in 2007 and has quickly become popular for buying and selling pre-owned cars, books, and even real estate.
SimilarWeb rank in India: #41, with 13.30 million desktop and mobile visits in December
The parent website, not to be confused with the Indian subsidiary. Indians love to shop for international brands of electronics, cosmetics and even fashion accessories, which leads many to look up global sites like Amazon, and of course, Alibaba. Add to that the fact that paying US$ rates often comes cheaper for many electronic items, than buying their Indian versions, and it’s no surprise Jeff Bezos’ “everything store” has made it to this list.
SimilarWeb rank in India: India ranks and visit numbers not available.
Another Craigslist-inspired site, and OLX’s rival. Quikr has been growing fast, and recently bought CommonFloor to boost its real estate listings. It has so far raised US$346 million from 10 investors, including Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, Warburg Pincus, and Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). The company, founded in Mumbai by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas, started as a classifieds portal in Mumbai and then shifted its base to Bangalore in December 2014.
SimilarWeb rank in India: #53, with 18.30 million desktop visits in December............
