India's consumer digital economy to touch $800 billion by 2030: RedSeer

India's consumer digital economy is expected to become a $800 billion market by 2030, growing from $85-90 billion in 2020, driven by strong adoption of online services like e-commerce and ed-tech in the country, according to consulting firm RedSeer.

India's online retail market is also set to become the third-largest globally, after the US and China, with annual gross merchandise value (GMV) touching $55 billion in 2021, and $350 billion by 2030. Besides, kiranas are expected to achieve approximately $1.5 trillion sales by 2030.

The insights were presented during RedSeer's Ground Zero 5.0 event.

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"Today, over 50 per cent of customers say they use online services because of convenience. A few years back, almost 70 per cent used to say the key reason is discounting but with the hit of Covid, digital services have undoubtedly served the customers very well, which is evident in high customer satisfaction and customers willingness to keep using the digital as a key channel to fulfill their needs," RedSeer founder and Chief Executive Officer Anil Kumar said.

He added that the next wave of entrepreneurs will create innovations that will make the Indian model successful globally.

In a fireside chat, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said massive disruption is taking place globally amid the pandemic. He noted that companies are looking for alternate destinations and that India can become an integral part of the global supply chain.

Former Infosys executive and Manipal Global Education Services Chairman TV Mohandas Pai stated that India doesn't have a chip industry, which requires huge investments. He called on industrialists like RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani and Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekhar to invest in the semiconductor ecosystem because "without the chips, our future electronics are not going to be so good".

"There's a lot of work going on in this direction right now...this is our top priority," Kant said. The digital economy includes 60 per cent of travel, 40 per cent of non-grocery retail, 30 per cent of education, 25 per cent of food and beverages services, and 6 per cent of pharma/grocery going through digital channels by 2030.

As per RedSeer data, 88 per cent of the online shoppers that will be added between 2020-2030 will be from tier II cities and beyond.

Further, more than 7 billion cumulative incremental online retail transactions to be added from customers in tier II cities and beyond, while over $150 billion worth of cumulative incremental online retail GMV is expected to be added from these locations between 2020 and 2030.

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RedSeer said e-logistics in India has become the fastest-growing market globally with over 3 billion shipments in 2020, and new-age logistics players are expected to deliver 2.5 billion D2C (direct to customers) shipments by 2030.

With the rise of e-commerce, the need for specialised delivery services emerged, which led to the overall growth of the logistics segment. Emergence of this sector is creating 5 lakh employment opportunities for gig workers in 2021.

According to RedSeer research, shared mobility saw a sharp decline due to the second wave-led lockdowns in the last two months. Although the autos segment recovered the fastest, the overall sector merely clocked 18 million rides, a drop from 113 million rides in January last year.

However, while the shared mobility is dipping, personal mobility space is riding on a wave of strong traction seen since last year.