Bangalore: Online shopping has hit the tipping point and seems to see exponential growth in 2013. Google’s combined consumer search and online research conducted by TNS stated that online shopping in India saw a 128 percent growth in interest from consumers in 2011 and 2012, compared to 40 percent in 2010 and 2011.

Apart from growth, the research highlighted some barriers that avoided people to shop online. The number one reason was one’s inability to touch and try goods before purchase. Fear of faulty products, sharing financial details online and inability to bargain were several other reasons.

In terms of consumer interest, ‘apparels and accessories’ emerged as the second highest category at 30 percent followed by consumer electronics at 34 percent. However, the former is expected to become bigger than the latter this year in terms of absolute query volumes. Books, beauty and personal care, home and furnishing and baby products are other categories searched online. Health care, baby products, home and furnishing were also seen as fastest growing product categories in terms of query volume on Google search.

Mobile phones are also gaining exponential growth with 30 percent of the shopping queries in India coming for mobile phones. Google India’s report says 90 percent of online shoppers are planning to buy products online this year.  It further stated ‘apparels and accessories’ (84 percent) were among the top categories purchased online followed by consumer electronics, beauty and personal care, baby products, health and nutrition.

Online ticketing emerged as an easier option to convert more users to shop online. Just as consumers found it easy to purchase, online ticket buyers were comfortable with the use of debit cards, credit cards and cash on delivery. 74 percent of regular internet users found cash on delivery the most preferred mode of payment followed by debit card (18 percent) and credit card (5 percent).

Google India’ s vice president and managing director, Rajan Anandan said that strong growth is expected in 2013 for players who are focused on fast growing categories like apparels and accessories and niche categories like baby products, home furnishing and health and nutrition. Expected growth is targeted outside top 8 metros and previous evidences of Great Online Shopping Festival showed 51 percent of traffic from non-metros.

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