India Forms ‘Tip of the Spear’ for Global eCommerce Growth

The world’s most populous country is also one of the most attractive for eCommerce investors.

“It’s the tip of the spear of growth,” for that sector, EMQQ Global Founder Kevin Carter told CNBC in an interview Sunday (Dec. 22), “not just in emerging markets, but on the planet.”

Carter’s company, the report said, is behind the The India Internet ETF, which launched in 2022 and up almost 21% so far this year, as of the end of last week.

Among the companies Carter has backed is Zomato, which he referred to as “the DoorDash of India,” and whose stock is up 128% this year.

“One of the reasons Zomato has done so well this year is because the quick commerce business blanket has exceeded expectations,” he said. “It now looks like it’s going to be the biggest business at Zomato.”

He added that his confidence lies from the fact that India’s population is only beginning to embrace the digital space.

“They’re getting their first-ever computer today basically,” he said, “You’re giving billions of people super computers in their pocket internet access.”

India’s eCommerce and quick commerce market has also attracted global retail giants like Walmart and Amazon. As noted here earlier this month, Amazon has begun testing 15-minute-or-less grocery deliveries, part of a wave of companies promising super-fast deliveries of products such as groceries and electronics in India.

Amazon aims to focus on launching a program “to offer the largest selection at fastest speeds and greatest value to customers in every single pin-code across the country,” Samir Kumar, country manager of Amazon India, said in a statement to Reuters.

That report said that the quick commerce sector in India is expected to exceed $6 billion in annual sales for 2024, up from $100 million in 2020.

The Walmart-backed Flipkart is another player in this space, having earlier this year begun a quick commerce pilot that promised grocery deliveries in 10 minutes. The quick commerce model also faces pressures from India’s traditional retailers, who contend they are having trouble competing with the sharp discounts and fast service that these platforms can offer.

In October, the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation, the country’s largest retail distribution trade group, called for an antitrust probe of three of India’s largest quick commerce companies — Zomato’s Blinkit, Swiggy and Zepto — over claims of predatory pricing.

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