“Inputting our survey data, we estimate that online sellers generate 15.8 million jobs, including 3.5 million jobs for women,” says the report prepared by Pahle Foundation India (PIF), a Delhi-based policy research institute, said.
According to the report, e-commerce has been a key driver of job creation in India. On average, online sellers employ 54 percent more people and almost twice as many women as offline sellers.
The report noted that two of the most widely recognized contributions of e-commerce penetration in the retail sector are job growth and improvements in consumer well-being.
He said that instead of displacing physical markets, e-commerce is expanding into new territories such as third-tier cities.
“Our data shows that a higher percentage of consumers from tier-3 cities spend more than Rs 5,000 per month on online shopping compared to consumers from larger cities,” he said, adding that this is the story of Indian consumption, which enables co-existence of physical and digital retail. The study analysed the impact that e-commerce has had on employment and consumer well-being through a pan-India survey of 2,062 online sellers, 2,031 offline sellers and 8,209 consumers of products from e-commerce websites across 35 cities in 20 states and UTs. According to the report, each e-commerce seller on an average employs about 9 people, of which 2 are women, while each offline seller employs about 6 people, of which only 1 is a woman.
He noted that there was an increase in employment at all skill levels, including high-skill (management, marketing), medium-skill (customer service, operations) and low-skill (warehouse, logistics, delivery) roles.
The report notes that the growth of e-commerce and the accompanying digitalisation have fundamentally changed the skills and roles required in the industry.
“Sellers have experienced an improvement in business performance parameters since they began trading online, including increased sales and profits,” he said.
According to the report, 60 percent and 52 percent of sellers, respectively, say their sales and profits have increased since they started selling online.
“Overall, more than two-thirds of online sellers surveyed experienced an increase in online sales value and profits over the past year,” the report said, adding that 58 percent saw an increase in both.
Aside from costs, he said sellers have seen a positive change in all other aspects of business performance since they started selling online.
The report notes that there is a strong business case for offline sellers to list on e-commerce platforms or adopt an omnichannel strategy.
“The integration of e-commerce has brought significant benefits to sellers in smaller cities and micro-enterprises,” he said.
The study also looks at how e-commerce has transformed consumer behavior, noting that consumers have turned to online shopping for reasons including convenience, product variety and access.
“A highly engaged consumer base is indicated by the fact that over 50 percent of all respondents spent more than two hours on e-commerce platforms a week, and that 70 percent made a purchase through e-commerce in the past month alone,” he said.
Speaking at the event, former NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said that e-commerce has revolutionised the Indian retail landscape.
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) Secretary Saurabh Garg lauded the government’s initiatives to expand digital public infrastructure that have enabled the smooth expansion of e-commerce.
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