Google has brought its shopping service in India, allowing the country’s consumers to browse for deals on the Google Shopping home page; a mobile-friendly web app; a “shopping” tab on the Google search engine; and through Google Lens. Amazon and Flipkart will be two of the retailers initially offering their products through the platform, according to CNBC.
India has the world’s second-largest population of Internet users, at 400 million people, but only one out of three purchase products online — although the number is growing. The country’s e-Commerce market could be valued at $150 billion by 2022, according to Nasscom and PwC.
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Additionally, while India has millions of domestic retailers, only a small portion of them currently have an e-Commerce presence. Google sees its presence in India as an opportunity to help retailers reach out to the country’s growing online customer base.
Google isn’t alone in its belief in India’s potential: Walmart acquired 77% of Flipkart for approximately $16 billion in May 2018, giving the retail giant a strong foothold in the country. Flipkart is India’s dominant e-Commerce retailer, with 100 million users and 100,000 merchants on the platform.
Amazon also has been active in the county: in addition to launching a version of its app in Hindi, Amazon acquired supermarket and hypermarket chain More for $580.35 million through a partnership with Indian private equity firm Samara Capital.
