India’s eCommerce Boom: 5.2% Growth in 2022

World’s third-largest online market experiences rapid expansion across multiple sectors

India’s impressive growth in the online Beauty & Cosmetics, Fashion & Apparel, Consumer Electronics, Online Groceries, Luxury & Jewelry, Marketplaces, and Home & Garden categories produced a 5.2% increase in desktop and mobile web eCommerce traffic year-over-year, according to Similarweb estimates.

These findings are excerpted from Similarweb’s Digital Ecommerce Landscape study 2022, released today.

Key findings

• In 2022, India was the third largest online market in traffic share for the online Beauty & Cosmetics, Fashion & Apparel, Consumer Electronics, Online Groceries, Luxury & Jewelry, Marketplaces, and Home & Garden categories.
• It did not experience high levels of inflation (as of January, keeping it just below the world average of 6%), nor lockdowns like the other Asian giant, China. This set up a favorable climate for consumers
• India was also one of the only 4 countries of the top 20 that saw an increase in desktop & mobile web eCommerce traffic year-over-year (YoY), growing by 5.2%

Here are the findings for several key verticals:

Beauty & Cosmetics 

India is one of the world’s largest markets for Beauty and Cosmetics.

• 8th market in global traffic share (3.6%), with over 717.9M visits in 2022
• Experienced significant growth, along with other Asian countries (17.4% for India, 41% for China, 15% for Thailand vs Global avg. of 7%)
• Indian retailer myglamm.com was the fastest-growing beauty site globally (up 89.9% YoY to 34.9M visits for 2022)

Fashion & Apparel

India was the top 20 market experiencing the fastest growth in eCommerce traffic for Fashion & Apparel websites in 2022 (+17% YoY).

Top 10 countries for the Fashion & Apparel industry per total traffic volume in 2022

Desktop & mobile web, Jan-Dec 2022 vs. 2021 

Brands and retailers should enter the Indian Fashion market by focusing on leading retailer apps such as Myntra.com, as there were over 7.6B app sessions to these four leaders in fashion retail (x2 the number of desktop & mobile web visits), with total app sessions growing by 13% YoY

Visits breakdown by traffic sources, major Indian Apparel players

Desktop, mobile web, and Android app, Feb 2022 – Jan 2023

Consumer Electronics

India features a huge and growing market for consumer electronics.

• India has the highest traffic share (15.88%), in front of the U.S (14.53%), and 2nd fastest-growing traffic trend for the top 20 consumer electronics online markets (+15.8% YoY) behind Vietnam (4th in traffic share, +26.96% YoY). Jumped ahead of the US in traffic share in 2022
• The biggest total addressable market in the world and high adoption of eCommerce for goods in this category, getting a boost from Buy Now Pay Later credit offerings

Luxury & Jewelry:

India is a strong market for luxury items and jewelry, driven by a wealthy upper class. Statistically, the country has a greater number of millionaires than any other nation and is third in the world in the number of billionaires, after the US and China.

• 3rd in traffic share (6.36%)
• +16.1% YoY increase in online demand for the segment
• Luxury brands should adapt to the tastes of these new clients

Marketplaces:

Overall, marketplace traffic grew by 7%. One of the biggest stories within this segment was the Indian marketplace Meesho, which grew by nearly 50% in just one year, surpassing Amazon India in total digital traffic. This success was driven by its impressive app adoption, as well as a higher share of young and female users.

• Meesho web traffic grew by 175% to 470.6M desktop and mobile web visits in between February 2022 and January 2023. But Meesho’s app performance was truly impressive, growing by nearly 50% in just one year and taking second place in app sessions just behind Flipkart. Amazon India dropped to the third position after losing 17% of app sessions in a year
• While most app users of these marketplaces are male, the Meesho app has not only a greater share of women (26% vs. 18% for the Flipkart app and 21% for the Amazon India app) but also a higher share of younger customers, with nearly a third of its app users below 25 years old, an ideal audience to drive in-app adoption. More than Amazon or Flipkart, Meesho shoppers tend to be regular social media users, representing an opportunity for brands to exploit affiliate programs with influencers, particularly on Instagram, which has the greatest user overlap with Meesho.

The Similarweb Insights & Communications team is available to pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (journalists are invited to write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to the most relevant blog post or similarweb.com/blog/insights/.

Contact: For more information, please write to press@similarweb.com.

Report By: Ines Durand, Similarweb Senior Market Insights Manager, Retail & CPG

Methodology

Disclaimer: All names, brands, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The data, reports, and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb consist of or include estimated metrics and digital insights generated by Similarweb using its proprietary algorithms, based on information collected by Similarweb from multiple sources using its advanced data methodologies. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of such data, reports, and materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on such data, reports, and materials.

by Inès Durand

Inès provides market research insights in Retail, CPG, and Financial Services. Her work has appeared in Retail Today, CNBC, and AFP.