Visa Survey: India Online Spending

Electronic Payment giant Visa carried out a survey among 9,142 Internet users aged between 18 to 49 years across six countries and territories from the Asia Pacific region some of the key result from that survey was:

• The report said Indian online shoppers increased their purchases by 42 per cent, or by about $1,000 per shopper to $3,450, compared to the $2,420 spent in the previous quarter which made them the third highest spenders in Asia Pacific. Singapore with an online buy of $4,018 per shopper and Hong Kong with $3,791 topped the charts.
• Among the categories surveyed, all top three online spend areas were travel-related services.
• According to the survey, the highest areas of spending in the past 12 months were airline tickets, which accounted for an average $970 per shopper annually. This was followed by online travel agents ($647) and travel accommodation ($527).
• Consumers are tuned to the convenience of shopping for travel services online

What this report fails to highlight is that e commerce in countries like India has failed to go beyond the travel category and sites focusing on selling stuff in India have failed to make it so far.