ABSTRACT
India has a “curious case of online commerce.” Why curious?—Since online commerce companies are reporting losses running into crores but the venture capitalists are still investing heavily in it. India is an interesting place; the uniqueness is in the diversity of population. India is second, only to China in terms of internet population; the negative is that the internet penetration in India is as low as 34.8% (Internet Live Stats, 2016). With the low prices of smartphones and the cheapest (sometimes free as in case of JIO) data plans, m-commerce is the way forward. The low internet penetration is the potential that e-commerce and the venture capitalists see, that is, once the internet penetration increases, the customer base will increase with it. The boom in the demand of smartphones, in recent years, accentuates the fact that people are becoming more reliant on the mobile phone. The number of smartphone and internet users is increasing at a fast pace. With more people using mobiles as the preferred device for online transactions (mostly shopping), it clearly shows that m-commerce has significant ramifications for e-commerce as well as bricks and mortar retailers. It is evident that m-commerce is expected to be a game changer when online shopping giants such as Flipkart, Amazon, and Myntra are reporting an increase in the m-commerce traffic. All these retailers have tried to go “app-only” at one point or the other. The impact of Digital India is huge for the m-commerce. Expansion of mobile infrastructure and integration of mobile payment gateways have made the consumer interaction possible in such a way that is blurring the line and creating an 164overlap between online and physical channel of retail and creating a phygital retail milieu.
This chapter would aim to help the readers understand the concept of phygital and m-commerce. To further the discussion of how m-commerce has the potential to save the cash-crunched and loss-spinning online companies, the chapter will provide detailed insight as to how m-commerce can further pave the way for phygital retail. The chapter would aid the reader in understanding how m-commerce is influencing and paving way for phygital retail, help in figuring out the relevance of phygital retail in the e-commerce space, aid in getting an insight into the applicability of omnichannel presence across different stages of customer purchase, and help find out the future prospects of phygital retail.
