Google is looking to enter e-commerce in India. This could put pressure on existing players in terms of higher customer acquisition costs and providing a great shopping experience backed by the latest of technologies. Existing players who may not be paying huge attention to aspects like recommendation engines and the search experience will be forced to optimise on these aspects.

Though Google has an edge in terms of technology platforms, the existing e-commerce giants will shine with their strong supply chain and customer support. For consumers, the party will continue with lots of deals, discounts and cashbacks. The market will further ripen up for acquisitions. The big three, Google, Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart, flush with big money and investor optimism, will aim to buy out smaller players to beef up their e-commerce war chest in India.

Start-ups that operate in specialised niche domains such as medicines, cosmetics, food, furniture, fashion will continue to grow, acquire scale and ultimately get picked up by the big three. However the e-commerce scenario will mould in such a fashion that there wouldn’t be much space for horizontal e-commerce players that operate in multiple products and service categories. Instead strong vertical players will emerge in niche categories.