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Online Shopper Distribution in India
Comparison of online shopper concentration between metropolitan and small cities.
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Inside India newsletter: Small towns are powering e-commerce's fastest ...
Hello, this is Priyanka Salve, writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to the latest edition of "Inside India" — your one-stop destination for stories and developments from the world's fastest growing large economy. Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart dominate India's e‑commerce market. This week, I unpack why the U.S. giants are keen to expand in the South Asian country where only 30% of the population shops online.Enjoy!Any thoughts on today's newsletter? Share them with the team.The big storyLast December, when Amazon pledged a massive $35 billion investment in India including for digitizing over 12 million small businesses and enhancing logistical infrastructure, the scale of the commitment seemed disproportionate to the market's size. Only 30% of Indians shopped online in 2025, far behind China (92%) and the U.S. (74%), according to a Bain & Co. report earlier this month. E‑commerce accounted for just 1.6% of India's GDP, compared with 4%–4.5% in Indonesia and 13%–14% in China, Bain added.But then India is the world's fastest‑growing e‑commerce market, with online shopping spreading rapidly from major metros to smaller cities and towns. Take Evelyn Nazareth, a schoolteacher in her 30s who lives in Jaipur, and is among a growing cohort of avid online shoppers outside India's largest cities. She shops on major e‑commerce platforms three to four times a month and orders from ultra‑fast delivery apps almost daily.Once, she ordered a smartphone online and received a feature phone but was billed for the former. That unpleasant experience, however, did not turn Nazareth away from online shopping. She simply switched platforms.Online shopping has since become a habit. "I can shop anytime without stepping away from what I'm doing," she said, noting the broader choice available online, especially for fashion. "When I buy something others around me don't have, it makes me feel different."Jaipur is not a metropolis, and it is these relatively smaller cities that now account for more than 60% of India's online shoppers, Praveen Govindu, a partner at Deloitte India, told CNBC. They generate a similar proportion of e‑commerce orders, he said, marking "a decisive shift in audience dynamics."Workers scan packages ahead of dispatch from the Flipkart fulfillment center at Sanpka in Haryana on August 26, 2025. Sajjad Hussain | Afp | Getty ImagesIndia's e‑commerce market experienced a compound annual growth of 23% between 2020 and 2025, driven by both a rising number of users an...
Flipkart, Amazon expand quick commerce in India
Flipkart, owned by Walmart, has crossed more than 800 dark stores for its Minutes quick commerce service and plans to double that by end-2026, UBS said, raising pressure in India's fast delivery ...
Flipkart and Amazon Are Rewriting India's Quick Commerce Rules
India's quick commerce sector, once the exclusive playground of nimble startups like Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart, is facing a structural reckoning. Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon are moving aggressively into the space, and the pressure they are applying goes well beyond simple competition. It is the kind of pressure that reshapes entire markets.
Flipkart And Amazon Intensify Competition In India's Rapidly Growing ...
Some analysts see future growth opportunities outside major cities if companies expand product categories beyond groceries and improve delivery speed. Amazon's Growing Presence Amazon, which entered India's quick commerce market in late 2024, has also been expanding its network.
