A comprehensive review of vertical e-commerce in India: sellers on these niche platforms should take a quick look

Flipkart and Amazon.in are the two giants in India's e-commerce industry. These two platforms are well-known, have a large number of users, and have relatively complete platform rules. Therefore, many sellers will first consider these two platforms when entering the Indian market. The large number of platform users also means a large number of sellers. Therefore, the competition among large platforms is very fierce.

Niche vertical platforms are less well-known than large platforms, but correspondingly, the competition is also less. In addition, to promote platform development, many small platforms will attract sellers to join by offering commission-free and other preferential policies, and the platform policies and rules are more relaxed and friendly.

India is currently in the early stages of e-commerce development, with a variety of vertical platforms flourishing. The areas covered by these vertical e-commerce platforms cover all aspects of people's lives. The following is an introduction to some niche platforms and vertical e-commerce platforms in India, which sellers can take a brief look at.

Furniture e-commerce platform Pepperfry: Pepperfry is the largest furniture e-commerce platform in India. The platform mainly sells furniture products such as office desks and chairs, sofas, wardrobes, as well as household items such as sofa covers, bean bags, and bed sets. In 2020, the Indian home furnishing market exploded. Among them, the sales of ergonomic office chairs on Pepperfry soared by 400%, becoming the most popular product.

Children's e-commerce platforms First Cry and Hopscotch: First cry and Hopscotch mainly focus on children's products. The main products of the platform include children's clothing, children's shoes, children's toys, children's furniture (study tables and chairs, children's beds) and other products in various children's subcategories. Among them, First Cry has a wider range of products, while Hopscotch focuses more on clothing categories. The target audience includes infants, children and teenagers (roughly between 0 and 14 years old).

Beauty e-commerce platforms Nykaa and Purple: Nykaa and Purple are similar to China’s Vipshop, and they mainly sell a variety of beauty and skin care products.

In addition, affected by the home quarantine policy due to the epidemic, India's grocery e-commerce platforms performed well in 2020. Grocery e-commerce platforms mainly sell daily necessities, including personal care products, packaged foods, household cleaning products, kitchen supplies, etc.

Currently, BigBasket is the largest grocery e-commerce platform in India, and JioMart is the fastest growing grocery e-commerce platform. Sellers who mainly sell grocery products can weigh the pros and cons and choose the best platform to join.

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