People love shopping online and in the past decade, the world has witnessed an unprecedented growth of ecommerce stores. The same stands true for India where the worldwide rise of ecommerce and a pan-India digital penetration resulted in the ecommerce boom.
This has given rise to social commerce brands and bigwigs like Meesho. The love garnered by ecommerce companies in India, especially, in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, is a result of the wide variety of things available online. It’s a huge contrast from what shoppers can get in their local offline stores.
However, online shopping isn’t the go-to option only in those cities. It is also the popular choice among people living in the busiest metros of India. Why? Because online shopping is easy and comes with a lot of benefits like sales and discounts.
In this post, we are going to talk about the top ecommerce companies in India in terms of popularity and market share.
Let’s get started!
Top 10 Best eCommerce Companies in India Every Shopper Should Know About [2024 Updated List]
1. Amazon India
Amazon is a household name in India. Until some years ago, it used to have Flipkart as its biggest competitor but Amazon has significantly improved its services since then.
Even the website and app interfaces have undergone huge developments making it one of the easiest to browse eCommerce stores in India.
Amazon’s India crazy popularity is kind of understandable given how it has a vast collection of products across at least 11 categories like books, home appliances/renovation, fashion apparel & accessories, groceries, electronics, etc.
It also has 6-8 big sale events every year – Prime Day, Republic Day, Black Friday, Freedom Fest, Great Indian Festival, Christmas, Holi, etc.
Apart from selling, Amazon has also branched out into providing shipping and fulfillment services through Amazon Shipping and FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon).
2. Flipkart
To talk about Flipkart is to talk about a history dotted with acquisitions and mergers. Flipkart started in 2007, and like Amazon, focussed on selling books initially.
Some of the first categories to be added were electronics, home improvement, fashion, lifestyle, etc. Flipkart has fully and partially acquired many companies since its inception, like Jabong, Myntra, Arvind Fashions, ABFRL, Cleartrip, and many more.
The Flipkart marketplace currently sells items in 9 categories. It is Amazon’s biggest competitor in market size and also a few segments like electronics.
Flipkart also provides hyperlocal deliveries in India in selected serviceable areas.
3. Myntra
Myntra was established around the same time as Flipkart, that is in 2007. Although it started as a personalization platform for B2B businesses, it soon switched gears towards fashion apparel and accessories from domestic and international brands.
Of late, Myntra has also expanded to include 2 other segments within their website and app, beauty and home & living. The Myntra marketplace has 3 divisions – Myntra, Luxe, and Fwd.
Myntra has items ranging from affordable to mid-range. Luxe has all the luxury brands and high-end products. Fwd, launched in 2023, has the coolest styles for Gen-Z.
It also features several influencers and their top picks, making it a hot favorite among the younger populace. Myntra also has a similar feature called Studio which shares daily fashion inspiration from celebs and influencers.
4. IndiaMART
IndiaMART leads the ecommerce wholesale segment in India. It is the second biggest B2B marketplace in the world and also one of the oldest in India.
It is also the platform with the largest product categories. Buyers on IndiaMART can fill out the form on the website stating their requirements to get quotes from all registered sellers or suppliers.
They can choose from the offerings and quotes. IndiaMART also has a Seller Academy that teaches sellers how to use the platform for maximum benefit, understand terminologies, and reach out to the best buyers quickly.
5. Nykaa
Nykaa brought a beauty revolution to India when it launched in 2015. Access to quality beauty products was limited in the country, especially in rural and remote areas.
It was also the first ecommerce beauty marketplace to bring big international brands to India and make them somewhat affordable for the general population.
Although it started purely as an e-commerce venture, it soon opened some physical stores around the country and gathered the same amount of love from there.
Over the years, Nykaa has started loyalty programs like Nykaa Prive, and taken CSR initiatives to pay back their due.
Just a few years ago the company launched their own line of products, Nykaa Cosmetics and Nykaa Naturals. Its Hot Pink Sale is very popular.
6. Meesho
Meesho started its operation as a reseller platform in 2015. The main drivers of Meesho’s sales at that time were social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
Meesho was the first social selling platform in India. Since 2021, Meesho has seen such rapid growth that it was named one of the most influential companies in a list published by Times Magazine.
Today, Meesho connects millions of sellers, distributors, and manufacturers across India with potential buyers. It is no longer a marketplace meant specifically for reselling but it still has many resellers on its platform.
Meesho’s main aim has been to use the power of the internet to help people from small-town India set up a business with practically no investment.
Its current goal is to create micro-entrepreneurs throughout the country. On Meesho, individuals and businesses showcase their products and sell them at very minimal profits. Like most marketplaces, Meesho too, works on a commission basis.
7. BookMyShow
BookMyShow has a long history spanning over 20 years. BigTree Entertainment was established in 1999 but the ticketing aggregator platform that we are familiar with didn’t come into being until 2007.
Until then, the company had acquired Vista, a New Zealand-based ticketing software. It also provided technological support for many companies in the early 2000s.
After becoming the official ticketing partner for IPL in 2010, BookMyShow started seeing rapid development. Soon after, it launched its mobile app, which was redesigned recently.
Today, BookMyShow is the biggest ecommerce company in India for booking tickets for plays, movies, events, sports, and other activities. It supports live streaming for many online activities like Sudoku championships, etc.
8. Snapdeal
Snapdeal is another ecommerce website like Amazon or Flipkart but with a different target audience. Most of Snapdeal’s shoppers come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, however, there are also many from big cities.
The reason Snapdeal is a big competitor of both Amazon and Flipkart is because it sells similar products but at a much lower price. Most of Snapdeal’s items are non-branded. Although Flipkart tried to acquire Snapdeal in 2016, the deal never came through.
As of now, Snapdeal is available on big screens through the website and on smaller screens through their mobile app. It has a similar category list to Flipkart and Amazon but the variety and number of products on display is limited.
However, on the upside, it’s more cost-effective than the two and hence, is one of the biggest competitors in the ecommerce marketplace space.
9. FirstCry
FirstCry is one of the first shopping websites in India for baby products. Its success and popularity have allowed it to open several FirstCry and BabyHug stores across many places in India.
In its first year, FirstCry acquired BabyOye and has been somewhat of a market leader in the segment.
Today, the FirstCry website has clothes and toys for boys and girls from ages 0 to 14. It also has separate categories for diapers, baby furniture, and even products to build a nursery.
The online store has recently added a new category on its website called Moms. This segment covers moms’ prenatal and postnatal requirements, such as maternity clothing, creams and lotions, pillows, and more.
10. TataCliq
Tata Cliq opened its online marketplace in 2016. It is owned by the Tata Group. The ecommerce company started off by selling fashion, beauty, footwear, and electronics items.
Soon, however, electronics took a backseat and Tata Cliq focused its attention on fashion and beauty products.
The company also launched a luxury segment called Tata Cliq Luxury where it houses premium domestic and international brands. It has another offshoot called Boutique.
Tata Cliq shoppers can return their products in exchange for store credit, called Cliq Cash, which gets saved in their accounts.
Conclusion
We have given you our honest thoughts and some very relevant information about what we consider the best ecommerce companies in India. We are sure you would have heard of them all but we hope our discussion sheds some more light on these companies.
In our selection, we tried to bring a mix of all kinds of things so that you could find yourself a brand that works for you. We hope to have given you all the things you need to know and assure you that you won’t go wrong buying from any of the eCommerce companies listed above.