The ecommerce market in India holds significant potential, with the second largest population in the world, and only 2% of the population buying online. However, India’s ecommerce potential, especially cross-border, is limited by low urbanization, Internet penetration and income levels. Mobile, however, could be the key to unlock this market – smartphone penetration is growing at 150% year on year. • Total Population - 1.26 billion - Second largest in the world, after China. • Age Breakdown - Under 13% of the population of India are over 55. • Religion - India is largely Hindu, at 80.5% of the population. • Urban Population - 32% • Internet Penetration - 243 million people - 19% penetration • Mobile Penetration - 899 million - 71% • Tablet Penetration - 9.3% • Smartphone Penetration - 10% - The penetration rate is growing at 150% year on year. • Online Shoppers - 25 million • Ecommerce Sales - USD 14.9 billion (including e-retail and ecommerce). - Average order value increased from USD 17 to USD 30 from 2012 to 2013. • Ecommerce Penetration - 11,5% • Ecommerce CAGR (2008 – 2013) - 21.7% Cross-border Ecommerce Opportunities • The lion’s share of India’s cross-border ecommerce trade is export, as India is considered to be a tricky location for import. This is due to limited infrastructure and urbanization. • Shopify, the Canada-based shopping cart, expects to double the number of stores operating on its platform in India from 5.000 to 10.000 in the next year, representing potential for Indian ecommerce. • Indian merchants generated USD 1.8 billion in value in 2013 in cross-border export of ethnic wear, handicraft, leather fashion accessories and semi-precious jewelry. • The US, UK, India, Russia and Israel are major export destinations for Indian merchants selling online, while China, Germany, Malaysia and Singapore are preferred import hubs. Indeed, 2.3% of China’s cross-border ecommerce export trade was to India. Language as a Key Driver • The national languages of India are Hindi (41%) and English (20%). • There are 350 million English speakers in India. • There are 422 million Hindi speakers in India. • Other languages include Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu and Gujarati. • The percentage of English speakers varies with age — the English speaking ratio is higher among the younger population. In most middle class families, parents may not be English speakers but the children are.