Last week, when Arun Sirdeshmukh, chief executive officer (CEO) of Reliance Trends, the retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), announced his decision to step down and start his own fashion e-retail venture, it hardly raised eyebrows.
Sirdeshmukh is just another one in the league of executives who have left lucrative jobs to start their own e-retail ventures - an industry which is growing at 35-45 per cent per month. According to Gaurav Marya, president of Franchise India, the
e-commerce market in India was estimated to be around Rs 46,520 crore in 2011, out of which the e-retailing market was projected to be Rs 2,700 crore. The sector is expected to grow to almost Rs 1,20,000 crore by 2015, with better Internet connectivity and increasing number of people putting
smartphones on all kinds of use including shopping, fuelling this growth.
"Just like IT and realty, e-retailing is the new emerging sector, which will continue to witness high double-digit growth, attracting many entrepreneurs as well as large retail brands to the online space to expand their customer base," Gaurav Marya.
No wonder so many CEOs are leaving their jobs to join the bandwagon. Last year Manoj Chandra, vice-president (VP) marketing and customer service at Bata left his job to set up Allschoolstuff an online portal that deals with school accessories. Even Sartaj Mehta, product director of Benetton India, left his job to establish Zovi,another e-retail portal; IMG former VP and head of fashion Sujal Shah started his venture FreeCultr and Rohit Sharma quit as CEO of Reliance Entertainment (Digital) last month to become a partner at Wopshop.com, a site for children.
Not to be left behind, established retailers are making their presence felt online too. Kishore Biyani's Future Group is strongly promoting its online portal Futurebazaar and expects 10 per cent of the firm's total retail sales to come from this platform. Similarly, Carrefour has announced plans to open its businessto-business e-commerce portal that will connect retailers and others, such as, Tata and Aditya Birla group, are already in the process of revving up their online stores.
The industry is pushing the views of skeptics, who believe it is a bubble that may burst anytime, to the back of its mind. "As many players are coming, the market is getting more competitive. Few years down the lane, not everybody will be able to taste success and only best business models and delivery services will be able to survive," Neeraj Jain, chief security officer of online gift portal ezeegift.com, said.
"Few years back who would have thought Snapdeal.com or Flipkart would grow so much in valuations. But seeing the vast potential of e-retail in smaller cities, the growth story is here to stay," Jain added. However, industry watchers say the online portal will be more competitive and only companies with good cash and business models, smart advertising and good delivery services are going to survive. "We can see many dealers like Flipkart in the future and those which have problem in funding and sustaining the competition will eventually exit, leaving behind larger companies like eBay," Marya said.
Courtesy: Mail Today
Special 
