The duopoly held by Amazon and Flipkart in the Indian ecommerce space is set to break soon, with two new players preparing to level the playing field.
According to a report by Forrester, Tata and Reliance will soon be joining the two major e-tailers in the top of the ecommerce space. "The Amazon-Flipkart duopoly is fast becoming a four-way competition as Reliance Digital and Tata join the fray," the report, which was shared with The Economic Times said. 'The State of Online Retail in India'. "We estimate that Flipkart, Reliance, Amazon, and Tata (FRAT) collectively own more than 80% of India's online retail market, and each is manoeuvring to gain market share," it added.
Tata recently acquired the homegrown grocery-selling platform BigBasket and medical e-tailer 1mg, while Reliance already operates the Reliance Digital storefront, has an e-commerce platform called JioMart, and recently bought 25.8 per cent stake in quick-commerce platform Dunzo for $200 million.
According to the ET report, Tata is seeking permission from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to to start operating on the UPI as a third-party payments service provider.
Forrester estimates the online retail market size to be $41 billion in 2021, and that it will reach $50 billion in 2022 and $60 billion in 2023, the report said.
The number of online buyers in India shot up from 7.15 crore in 2016 to 17.95 crore in 2020, and Forrester forecasts this number to rise to 29.15 crore by 2025. This growth will be largely driven from smaller towns and rural areas, the report said, adding that it classifed India as a "large and developing opportunity for online retail".
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